The Hidden Evil Design
by ChaoticYoukai667
Summary: Chapter 11 is up finally! I'm very sorry for the long wait, but my school has a filtering system on their computers, and this site was one of them that was blocked... so... this chapter explains more in depth about the character Yuri... and you wait...!
1. Prologue Dueling Emotions

**Author Note: This is my first "real" fic, so to speak… but I hope you all will enjoy it! I've been roiling the ideas over in my head for quite some time now… Please Read and Review and tell me how you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do _not _own Inuyasha or any of its characters (though sometimes I wish I did lol). That honor belongs to and only to Rumiko Takahashi (bless her and her imagination for this story!)**

**_Chapter I_: Misunderstood Emotions**

**_Why did she cry? I do not understand…_**

_**This strange yearning that fills my heart… what is it? Do I love…? Do I love Kikyou? Or do I love… the other one? Is it quite possible that I am attracted to both? I do not understand… I am at a standstill, and it has never been this way!**_

"**Inuyasha?" a voice called timidly, softly, as if from a great distance. "Inuyasha, are you okay?"**

**Inuyasha grumbled something, opened his eyes, and then jumped when he heard a sudden loud popping sound, then cursed himself when he realized it was just the campfire…**

"**Inuyasha…" the voice said again, and again it was very faint, as if he and the speaker were standing on opposite sides of a wall of water… a silent wall of water, where sound is garbled but still partly understood. **

**Slowly raising his head, Inuyasha could see that it was Kagome who had spoken, Kagome who looked slightly worried, and Kagome who looked more miserable and weary than he himself felt.**

"**Are you okay?" Kagome asked again, and this time her voice was clear. "We have been trying to rouse you for a while… are you sick…?" Her voice trailed off suddenly, then… because she knew that he was a demon… well, half-demon, actually, and knew he did not get ill very easily. **

**He grumbled again, something that sounded like "Whathehell…" and that got Shippou, who was lying nearby, laughing uproariously. **

"**You know," the young fox-demon said, positively crying with mirth, "I think that's the very first time I have ever heard you talk in your sleep!" Still shrieking with laughter, he was not able to hear Sango's words.**

"**Actually, Shippou-chan, he _has _been talking to himself in his sleep, and in waking… more often than usual, come to that."**

"**Yes," Miroku agreed, presently leaning against the trunk of a wide oak, "He does it a lot." He stifled a yawn, which was a good sign that he had just woken up. **

"**And how would _you _know, Houshi-sama?" Sango asked delicately, but could not hide a trace of amusement in her voice. "You just woke up, so you could not have heard what we were saying, right?" The monk shrugged, but when the demon slayer turned away to stroke her pet, Kirara, Miroku added in an undertone to Kagome, "I actually _was _awake, have been for several minutes, in fact, and I was waiting for dear Sango to turn so I could…" His voice trailed off hopefully, as if he already knew Kagome knew what he had been about to say… and she had a very good idea that she did. And as if to emphasize his unspoken point, Miroku reached out quietly, with that well-practiced hand of his, and set it on Sango's behind. A horrified scream, followed by a stinging slap on the cheek, told him he had left his mark.**

**_And I didn't even get to start fondling her, _Miroku thought hopelessly. _She's getting really good at detecting when I'm going to move, it seems… Ah, well._**

**Inuyasha, who had been laying on his side the whole time this was going on, now shot upright, looking tense and expectant. His whole face was lit with rage. Tessaiga seemed to quiver in its sheathe. **

"**What is it, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked. "Is something wrong?" But then she stopped, very suddenly. She clapped a hand to her mouth. Now it was Sango, Miroku and Shippou who all said in unison, "What's the matter, Kagome?" (Except it was Miroku who said, "What's the matter, Kagome-sama?" And it was Sango who said, "What's the matter, Kagome-chan? And it was Shippou that just said, "What's the matter, Kagome?") Inuyasha didn't need telling what was wrong; he knew by instinct… that look in the girl's eyes was unmistakable. The others got their answer in just a few seconds…**

"**I am sensing… the Sacred Jewel!"**

"**WHAAAT?" the others gasped, with the obvious exception of Inuyasha. "IS IT NARAKU?" Shippou yelled, with all trace of his earlier comedic attitude vanished. But he and most of the others got a big shock when Kagome replied, "No… it seems to be just one shard." Miroku, Shippou and Inuyasha all looked confused, thinking it might be just some lowly demon, but Sango had something/someone very different in mind.**

**She sprang from the ground, and if she had been drowsy moments before, like Shippou, she was in fighting mode. Hiraikotsu was in her hand in a flash, and with a burst of fire, Kirara transformed from her small, domestic housecat-like form to her large, powerful one. With a movement just as quick, her master leapt on her back and the two of them were soon in the sky, heading away into the coming light of day. **

"**Wait, Sango!" Inuyasha shouted, but if she could hear him, Sango gave no indication. Her thoughts were only on one person.**

"**Just wait there!" Sango called to the air in front of her, and although she could not see it, she could tell that there was a figure not too far ahead of her. "This time, I will free you from his grip… Kohaku!" **

**To be continued… Ha ha ha!**

**Note: Not that I meant to have it end this way… but you will all have to wait for Chapter 2! I am not sure when it will be complete, but I will have it up as soon as I can! I hope you all enjoyed this first part of my long in-coming story! And yes … I leave big spoilers. Please R&R! **


	2. Chapter 1A The Owner of the Jewel Shard

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, names, places and what-not. I do, however, own my ideas and hope they are enjoyable to you as you read this! Thanx.

Note: I had meant to have this be Chapter 1 and have the first part merely be a prologue but I could not figure out how to change it to be a prologue, so this is also chapter 1, (and for this sake, it will be called Chapter 1A) and then next it will be Chapter 2 and so on… just to let you all know!

_Chapter 1A: The Owner of the Jewel Shard_

"Wait, Sango!" Inuyasha called to the rapidly vanishing figure on the horizon, but for all the good it did, he might as well have been yelling to the tall oak tree beside him where he had lain just moments before.

"Damn it!" Inuyasha cried, infuriated, and not quite knowing why. "She doesn't even know if it's her brother or not! And even if it is, she won't be able to save him from Naraku!"

Hearing a sudden noise behind him, Inuyasha whipped around, only to see Kagome readying herself for battle, her quiver of sacred arrows slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were alert and wary, the eyes of someone completely used to this era of chaos and war. They were currently focused on the ground, where Shippou was still laying, apparently too excited, or frightened, to move, then to Miroku, who was on his feet as well, holy staff in hand and eyes looking similarly expectant, and then to the half-demon himself.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome began, but he cut her off quickly with one motion of his hand. She knew that motion, and did not dare question it, though she could have disciplined him interrupting her with a single word, but she did not. The situation at hand now was too serious.

"Kagome, get on my back… we're going after her," Inuyasha said, and crouched down on the ground, ready. Kagome nodded. "Okay, but if it is… him… we have to take extra precautions… remember that Kohaku is not just some lowly demon that we can simply kill without hesitation… it's Sango's brother…"

"I know that!" Inuyasha snapped, and Kagome took a small step backward, a trifle hurt by his response; she was just trying to make her point, of course. But hard times called for desperate measures, or however the saying goes. She nodded again, confident like she was just a couple of minutes ago. "Alright… let's go."

Meanwhile, far ahead of them, Kirara's fast pace drew her and her master closer to where that enigmatic figure stood, on a small rise almost directly in front of them. Sango's mind was on only one person, and that was her beloved brother, whom she knew was standing only feet from her, on the ground below, looking up at her, his mind wiped clean of all the memories of his past life, before that terrible day at the castle… when he…

"No!" Sango cried to herself, and below her, she could feel Kirara twitch from that shout. "I refuse to believe it! He is my brother and I will do all that I can to save him from that bastard Naraku's evil grip!"

And as if in reply to her yell, the figure on the ground suddenly leaped up with catlike agility, much like Kirara herself, and then flew into the sky.

Sango, openmouthed, stared blankly at the person (she now knew it to be a person) as they easily lifted themselves into the air, almost as if they were walking up invisible stairs leading to the heavens. At the moment, the figure was in shadow, cast by the absence of the sun behind the clouds, but very quickly the shape was revealed… to be Naraku.

Jumping through the air with incredible speed was one of Inuyasha's special traits… he could cover many miles in a very short time… that tactic came in very useful as they made their way toward Sango.

Because he could not fly, being an ordinary human, Miroku could run extremely fast for a long period of time and not get fatigued; he took advantage of this now… it had served him well in the past and he was determined to do it to get Sango back, no matter what it took.

Shippou, while he could use his fox-magic to transform into a flyable object, did not, because he knew he would slow the group down… instead, he rode on Inuyasha with Kagome, clinging to her shoulder for dear life.

"Hey, Kagome!" Miroku called from just behind them, "Where is your strange contraption that you used to bring to this world? Is it back in your era?" Kagome had to think of what the lecherous monk was trying to get at… but then she had it. "Oh yeah, my bike! I did leave it over there, and forgot to bring it back when I returned yesterday… sorry!"

"That's okay!" Miroku replied, but in his head he was seething. It would have been nice to use her carriage-like machine; for one, he wouldn't be lagging behind Inuyasha like this, and for another… he dismissed the unfinished thought with a grin. Instead, he used this time to look past Inuyasha, where a broad expanse of woods was quickly approaching them, and not too far ahead… approximately 500 feet ahead, were two… no, three… figures in the sky. Two looked like Sango, riding on Kirara, but who was the other? From this distance and perspective it did not look like her brother, Kohaku… instead, it looked like… but it couldn't be! And yet…

"Inuyasha, be careful!" Miroku yelled to the half-demon, but his effort to waste his voice was futile; Inuyasha seen him, all right. "I know! It's that bastard! We'll get him this time!" Miroku could not help but realize that no matter how many times Inuyasha said that, it did no good; Naraku and his incarnations just did not seem to want to die. But he hoped, with all his heart, that this _would _be the day Naraku was destroyed, mainly to help Sango reunite with her brother, but also to get rid of this damned _Kazaana _in his hand. It would be quite interesting, once his curse was lifted, to not have to worry about stroking beautiful females with a black hole in your hand.

"Naraku, you bastard!" Sango screamed, hurling Hiraikotsu from the strap on her back and readying it, aiming for the nefarious demon in front of her.

At the moment, Naraku was in his baboon pelt disguise, a disguise he once used before he attained his newer, better, more powerful body. Why he was using it now, Sango did not guess; at the moment she plain did not care. All her thoughts were bent on killing him, both for her and Kohaku's sake, not to mention everyone else that had been torn apart by his schemes.

"Sango, I implore you to calm down," he now said, speaking softly, always with that faint hint of arrogance in his voice, a voice that said he was boss and everything went his way, or the highway, "I did not come to fight you. On the contrary, I wish to talk to you, if you would not mind." She knew that he knew before he finished his sentence that it was going to do no good. Someone that killed your whole family, practically and forced your only brother to become a mindless slave, slaughtering everyone he is ordered to slaughter, isn't really someone you can just sit down and have a pleasant conversation with, is it?

Sango shouted in anger, raised her boomerang and threw it with all her might, toward the baboon-pelted figure in front of her; she missed by a mile.

"Shit!" she cursed, urging Kirara to go forward as fast as her fiery body would allow, to reach her weapon before it was too late… but it was too late. With one motion, Naraku reached out a hand and caught Hiraikotsu before it smashed into a tree, and although she could not see it, Sango knew that the demon was laughing.

"Sango, you should know by now… I cannot be killed by your petty means. Now maybe Inuyasha can, one day, or even his brother, Sesshomaru, but never you… you don't have what it takes, do you?" He stopped, lowering the boomerang to his side, and reached into his pelt, where he withdrew a glowing piece of the Sacred Jewel. He was the owner of the shard, after all.

The only visible part of Naraku's body showing now was the lower half of his face, and Sango could see him smiling from ear to ear (although she could not see his ears, that's another expression).

"Now, you thought that I was your dear brother, did you not?" he asked, and held out the shard, as if offering it to her. But then he snatched it back, just as quickly, almost as if knowing what he had done at the last second.

"Never mind that, though… it's really good that you so willingly gave me your weapon, Sango… because I have a very special surprise for you and all of your friends! Would you like to know what it is?"

Her mind still filled with raging thoughts of murdering the demon in front of her, Sango could not help but be a little curious. "What do you mean?" There was no reply from Naraku, but he was still smiling. "What is it?" Sango asked again, this time more urgently. There was still no reply.

Frustrated, Sango shouted, "TELL ME, DAMN YOU!"

There was still no response. But then Naraku began to laugh.

"I will tell you!" he finally replied. He replaced the jewel fragment into his robes and then sat cross-legged in the air.

"It's a little involved, but I'll make it brief," he continued. Sango sighed in anger, wondering what the hell he was thinking of, and listened to his words…

To be Continued

Note: HI! Told you I leave big cliffhangers! Next chapter is gonna be good, I can promise you! If you haven't yet read, please do!

ExIYFan signing out…


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Like before, I do not own Inuyasha… So there (short, huh)!**

**Note: From now on, the chapter names will be normal (ex. Chapter 2, Chapter 3) followed by their titles; what happened before was a little mix-up but it's fixed now.**

Chapter 2 – Naraku's Plan and Sango's Decision 

"Naraku…" Sango said softly, her anger of a few moments before somehow immediately distilled by the words that the demon in front of her spoke, "You know that whatever you tell me, I will refuse… I… you pretty much murdered my whole family and you expect me to listen to you suggest something that would be to my apparent _benefit_??"

Naraku was silent, yet he was still smiling under the half of the mask he wore. Just looking at him made the young demon slayer sick. No matter if it was a _kugutsu _or not, she would kill him, be it here now or later somewhere else. She owed Kohaku and the rest of her kin at least that much. So she waited for his response, at least for now… and if he did not talk soon… then she would take action.

She knew, however, that her best weapon was now parted from her, in the hand of her fated enemy, mere feet from her, and she could not get it back… at least not yet. The question remaining was whether he would give it back to her or not. Apart from Hiraikotsu, she had the concealed dagger in her arm, under her clothing, the poison powder which was already out of the question (as Naraku's body was basically made of poison) and smoke bombs which also would not be effective. So no matter how she looked at it, she was at a disadvantage. Never mind her sickle that she had accidentally left back at the campsite in her haste to find out the truth, which she of course now knew, much to the pain in her heart. She had been separated from her brother yet again, and this was starting to be one too many times it had occurred.

Even after all these thoughts had flown through her mind, Naraku was still as enigmatic as ever, much like Inuyasha's brother, Sesshoumaru. Except someone like him could take this bastard down with no problem, if only he could sit still long enough.

So Sango continued to wait.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha and the others are working their way toward their comrade…

"So, Inuyasha…" Kagome began, her face tense with worry about Sango. Anything could be happening right now between her and Naraku.

"What is it?" Inuyasha replied, his speed taking them much farther distances a lot faster than any human could run or jump or walk.

"I'm kind of worried about Sango-chan," Kagome said, her voice filled with as much doubt and worry as her face revealed. She did not cry; she knew the _taijiya _was good at what she did, possibly even better than what Kagome herself, Miroku-sama, and Shippou-chan… and probably Inuyasha at times, as well. And speaking of the _houshi…_

He was running alongside them, keeping up easily with Inuyasha's quick pace. His countenance revealed as much emotion as Kagome's, but even she could never guess what else the lecherous monk had in mind once they caught up with Sango. Although if she thought about it long enough, she could probably figure it out with no trouble.

"Kagome-sama!" Miroku called suddenly, his voice betraying a hint of fatigue for the first time; they had been running for a while now, so it was remarkable that his endurance could take him this far, being a human and all, if not a pretty cool human.

"What is it?" Kagome called back, mimicking (without realizing it) Inuyasha's exact reply to her question a moment ago.

"Do you still sense the jewel shards? Are they getting closer or farther away?" the monk asked, his holy staff jingling beside him.

Kagome was silent for a second, keeping her head cocked to the position where she had first sensed the Jewel's aura, but now it seemed to be getting fainter.

What is going on? Kagome wondered. A second ago, the Jewel was right in front of us; now it's almost gone! Is Naraku…

"Inuyasha…!" Kagome started to shout, but then a huge gust of wind suddenly came out of nowhere, some inches to their left, and a familiar figure landed lightly on the ground, catching a small white feather out of the air and attaching it to her hairpiece.

The group stopped abruptly, and Inuyasha halted so fast and shockingly that Kagome almost tumbled off his back. Miroku stopped just short of Inuyasha, coming up from behind him and standing stock-still, his eyes on the person in front of them. Shippou, from Kagome's back, stared with equal astonishment. None of them expected this little encounter, but it seems that Inuyasha did.

"I knew I smelled your and Naraku's foul stench!" he cried. "So, it's you, wasn't it? Kagura!"

The wind sorceress only smiled devilishly.

"Now, Sango…" Naraku spoke (finally), "I will begin our little chat."

With a little wave of his arm, Hiraikotsu vanished without a trace, probably to the depths of his costume, but how could that be feasible?

With another little swing, a violet-colored ray of light shot out of his pelt and into the air, coalescing and combining into a huge diamond-shaped prison, which covered them both, around a space of at least 50 feet in all directions.

Of course, Sango thought. A barrier. I wonder if it will be strong enough to keep Inuyasha and the others out. Probably not, now that Inuyasha has his red barrier-breaking Tessaiga!

Naraku seemed to read her mind, for he said, "Oh, I wouldn't worry at all about Inuyasha coming here, because if he did manage to break _this _barrier… well… I guess he, his little group and you will all have to find out." He chuckled, the sound echoing metallically inside the shield, ringing weirdly off of its walls.

"Damn you!" Sango screamed, again feeling Kirara twitch under her; she had been oddly silent during this whole confrontation so far, not even doing so much as growling at Naraku, which she almost always did.

"Your pride only gets you so far!" Sango continued, her voice doing the same thing his did, piercing off the purple barrier walls. "Someday, it will come back on you!"

Naraku stopped laughing, his eyes, previously unseen, now shone from underneath the eye holes of the baboon pelt… an eerie-looking red.

"Alright, Sango… I suppose I have teased you long enough. Why, if we don't finish this conversation soon, this meeting will all have been for nothing, won't it?" He grinned again. He was doing this on purpose, she realized… toying with her emotions, trying to get her to crack, and attempt to attack him. But she wouldn't be goaded by _him. _She wouldn't be tricked like her poor, unsuspecting brother, father and fellow villagers were. The time had come to show Naraku that this _taijiya _was not as easy to take down!!

"Kagura, you little wench!" Inuyasha snarled, pulling Tessaiga out of its sheathe in a frenzy, his mind now filled with thoughts of pummeling Kagura until she couldn't summon even a breath of wind.

She didn't even flinch, just stood there with her black hair, tied up in a bun, blowing softly in the breeze that just came up a few seconds ago, after she landed. Then she spoke, and as usual, it was in that arrogant-sounding tone.

"Inuyasha… I'll have you know that I did not come here to fight you. Naraku wanted me to tell you and your little friends that the demon slayer (Sango, her name was?) would soon be out of your reach forever… but he did not elaborate on that to me…" She said that last part of the sentence with a little bit of disgust, which she clearly did not intend to hide. Although Inuyasha and his comrades did not know it, Kagura openly despised Naraku, not only because he treated her like scum compared to the rest of his incarnations, but the fact that she wanted to be free of him; he, after all, literally held her heart in his very hand, and with one quick motion, should he desire, he could end her life. All it would take would be a few moments of pain, and Kagura, his second incarnation, would be totally free, like the wind she manipulated. That was her ultimate wish, to destroy her maker and be free of him forever. But, of course, that part of her also wished for something else…

"What the _hell _are you talking about, you witch?" Inuyasha rasped, brandishing Tessaiga toward Kagura, and only to his eyes, the surrounding wind began to curl around the blade, signaling the coming of a certain attack…

"I've told you all… my business here is now done," Kagura said flatly, the same note of disgust in her voice still, "Go and die in what way seems most profitable to you." She ended that by plucking the feather from her hair, swooshing it up and all of a sudden, she was in the air, riding on the back of a giant replica of the small feather she had held a second ago.

"Wait, you!" Inuyasha yelled, lifting his sword up with a fury unlike any of his friends had ever seen; it was as if it were Naraku, and not Kagura, that was escaping from them now.

"_Kaze no Kizu!" _Inuyasha shouted, and slammed his sword up into the air, whereas a huge blast of yellow energy rushed out of it and toward the escaping foe.

"Hit it!" Inuyasha screamed, but his efforts were futile. Kagura suddenly yelled "_Dance of Blades!" _and used her wind power to divert his blast and make it strike a nearby tree, blowing it to smithereens in seconds. Just as quickly, Kagura vanished without a trace.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha cried, slamming Tessaiga down with as much force as he had a little while ago, this time into the ground. "They always get away from me!"

Unusually silent during the whole confrontation with Kagura, Kagome, Miroku and Shippou all stared, openmouthed, from Inuyasha, to the demolished tree and back to the _hanyou._ It was all they could do; who would want to risk an outburst by someone like him…?

"Naraku," Sango said slowly, and almost casually, inside of the barrier that had been erected not 30 minutes ago, "Please tell me what you will. I tire of your stalling, and am only hoping for the chance to take you damn head off with whatever weapon I can think of!" That last part was only in her mind; that's what she wanted to say, at least. But the thing was, she could not seem to speak; all she could do was look into Naraku's strange, scarlet eyes and see whatever he wanted her to see. At last, he spoke again.

"Sango, you should know now that Kagura just appeared and talked with your friends. It sure seems like we are not the only ones having a meeting here, are we?"

Even though she could not speak, Sango was paralyzed with sudden fright. Kagura! What was she doing here? Were all of Naraku's minions congregating on this very day? She didn't have time to consider it anymore, however.

"Now, Sango, you have been so patient with me, I think it is time to reveal what was promised to you… will you listen?"

The demon slayer was silent, but to Naraku, that seemed to be answer enough.

"Alright, then, let's begin, shall we? Simply enough, what my plan is for you and your friends is like a little test. What that is exactly will not really be clear to you until 12:00 noon tomorrow, when the sun is at its highest point. By then, all will be known to you. And do not worry a bit; your friends will have found out the answers to their problems way before that."

That last part confused Sango, and she asked, "What do you mean by 'they will have found out all the answers to their problems?' What exactly are you planning?" Naraku only smiled under his mask, and that only infuriated Sango even more.

"Stop toying with me, you bastard! What the hell do you _want_?"

For the first time, Naraku looked annoyed.

"Please, for the sake of your own life and not to mention your pathetic friends, will you do me a favor and _listen_? When I am done talking, you are free to rant and rage, even attack me, if you so desire. But first… as punishment…" He fell silent, and the glint of his eyes under the holes of the mask vanished; he had closed them. He was like this for a moment, but then all of a sudden, Sango felt terrible pain in her arm; it was like someone was slowly pressing a knife into her skin. She cried out and tore at the cloth above her left arm, and was shocked to see a small hole, gradually getting bigger and bigger, and as she looked, bright red blood began to seep out of that hole. She screamed louder. She was screaming so loudly that she did not hear Naraku's next words.

"Now, will you listen to my words? Maybe next time you won't have to suffer…" Without waiting for her to respond, he opened his eyes again, which had been closed this whole time.

Instantly, the pain vanished, the blood turned a dull pink color and flaked away, and the hole shrunk until it was gone. Sango breathed as much as if she had just run a mile; if that was some sort of _genjutsu_, it was a really good one; the pain felt so real. For a long time, both Sango and Naraku were silent, and then he finally spoke again.

"Now that you are seemingly willing to cooperate now, I will finish my little tale. As mentioned before, the details of this test will not be revealed until tomorrow, but there is one more thing I can mention, though. Before tomorrow comes, you must make a certain choice, and that choice is very simple, to some people, people who are easily swayed by the darkness in their hearts. But for you, one who has lived through so much hardship and turmoil, will eventually find yourself begging for a way out, before it's too late."

Again, Sango was perplexed. "Just what do you mean? Will you quit speaking in riddles and just come out and say what you want to say? Jesus… at this rate, it would be better if you just say 'Sango, this test is designed to kill you, but you have to make a choice on whether to live or not!'"

Suddenly, Naraku started to laugh… it went on seemingly forever in their enclosed space.

But just as suddenly, he stopped, and turned his head instinctively to the right, as if he had heard something. What he had heard turned out to be obvious as a blindingly bright yellow blast of energy smacked into the barrier.

Sango cried out, tense on Kirara's back. Naraku just continued to float cross-legged in midair, completely calm.

_That looked like Inuyasha's sword blast! _Sango thought, panickingly. _Does he intend to destroy this barrier, after what Naraku said?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by Naraku, who sighed and said, "Damn that Inuyasha… always poking his canine nose into where it does not belong. Sorry, Sango, but our conversation will have to be put on hold for a little bit…"

TBC

Note: Hello there! I tried to make this chapter longer than the others; I hope I succeeded, and I hope you all are enjoying this so far! Next time… a battle will ensue! Who will come out victorious? And just what exactly is this plan of Naraku's? Find out in chapter 3!

P.S. Those of you who have been reviewing, I greatly appreciate it! Keep it up! The story will only get better and better!


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I……..DO…….NOT……OWN….. (bet you can guess the rest?)**

**Note: Wow, I'm on a roll with chapters now! Chapter "2" is up and now 3 is on its way (right here).**

Chapter 3 – A Pointless Fight

As a recap… (revised slightly)

Continued from last chapter: Naraku and Sango inside the violet-colored barrier, a few minutes earlier

"Sango, I have a little something that you and your friends will just love to do, and that is a small test. Pass it successfully and you will be rewarded. Fail to pass it and something terrible will befall all of you. What that is will not be revealed to you until that happens… if it happens. So just cooperate with me and you will see that it can be fun… if done the right way, that is. I will not tell you any more here, because that will ruin the surprise, not to mention the fun…"

Now… to the present time

"Inuyasha! There they are, inside that barrier!" Kagome called suddenly, jarring the young half-demon from a little daydream he had been having… it was strange… Kikyou was in it, but what she had been doing Inuyasha did not know… but it was really strange… it was almost as if it had happened before, or was about to happen…

He jerked his head up and seen, approximately 30 feet in the air, a bright, purplish-colored barrier. And inside the barrier were two people, and he knew them both very well.

"It's Sango!" Shippou cried out, before Inuyasha could respond to Kagome's statement. For some reason, Inuyasha was so annoyed that he said, "I know that, you little twerp! It's Sango and that bastard, Naraku!" Rage filled his head again, as if all the blood in his body were rushing upward to that spot. A few minutes ago, he had been placid, tranquil and calm (all of which mean the same thing, actually ), but now that familiar emotion was surging inside of him, lighting all of his nerves and veins, pulsing him into a killing machine, out for revenge and nothing else.

Before he suddenly accidentally exploded with his fury, Kagome said, "That's weird… Kohaku-kun isn't with them. They seem to be just talking, not fighting." As she finished that, Kagome's head filled with a sudden heavy, leaden feeling, as if she had gone up and down elevations really fast, so that it made her light-headed. Suddenly, abrupt nausea pushed its way up her throat, which began to burn as if she had swallowed a whole jar of hot pepper juice. She screamed and wildly grabbed at her neck, startling Inuyasha so much that he toppled to the ground, catching his rider before she landed somewhere that she shouldn't have.

All of her companions yelled out her name, but their voices seemed to be getting farther and farther away; she could feel herself slipping away from the world… getting dark… darker… each breath an extreme effort.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed, his rage gone like a light bulb being blown out, now replaced by worry and fright for his friend… his friend who had shared so many adventures with him… his friend who now looked as if she had just been pulled out of her tomb after being buried. What had all of a sudden happened to make her collapse like this? Heartburn? Was she sick? If so, she wouldn't have grabbed insanely at her neck like she was trying to choke herself. But one fact was clear. Kagome was probably dying.

Up in the air, inside the barrier, Sango stared at what she could see through it, a small white spot had shown through where Inuyasha's Tessaiga had blasted through, but not quite penetrated. Through that tiny spot, she could see, with painful clarity, Inuyasha crouched down upon the ground, leaning over someone. When he moved a little to the left, the figure on the ground appeared to be Kagome-chan.

Sango cried out in shock, and then whirled to face Naraku, who was, still, hovering in the air before her, legs crossed, looking perfectly calm, not a care in the world.

"_You _did this to her, didn't you?" Sango shrieked, wishing more than ever that she had Hiraikotsu in her hand. Naraku's only response was laughter…

"KAGOME!!" Inuyasha screamed wildly, not realizing he was doing it practically directly right in her face; she did not stir. She continued to look as though she had been recently dug up from a grave, except without the dirt.

Suddenly, the air was filled with Naraku's laughter, and Inuyasha looked up just in time, tears starting to trickle down his cheeks, to see a huge bolt of energy come whipping in out of nowhere. The source of that blast was evident after Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's lifeless body and leapt out of its way; the huge barrier that Kagome had mentioned just minutes before was shining in the air about 50 feet above them, suspended as if from giant, invisible cables… but this barrier was different, somehow… it was not like the ones that Naraku had always erected to protect himself from his foes. It was almost like… Shiori's barrier…

Before he could elaborate further on that thought, Inuyasha had to dodge another gigantic blast of energy from the direction of the barrier, and then he heard Naraku's voice.

"Very good, Inuyasha, dodging my attacks like that. If I am not mistaken, you are improving… little by little… _heh heh heh_… oh yes… by the way… what do you think of my little spell? Or, to be more direct, the curse that your friend, Kagome, is under?"

Inuyasha did a double-take. This was a curse? So Kagome was not really dead…? For a moment, his heart threatened to burst with joy and relief, but swelled back up when Naraku continued, "I daresay that she has less than an hour to live… unless you can do something for me. Would you like to know what it is?"

Right now, Inuyasha wanted nothing more than to find Naraku, who was very near, he knew and squeeze the life from him. He knew that he was near because he could sense his _youki_, and it was as unpleasant than ever. This was no _kugutsu_, it seemed. And he knew, before it even started, that this battle would be worthless.

Within the barrier, Sango had silent tears flowing down her face at the thought that Kagome might really die from this curse of Naraku's… that thought, coupled with the feeling of already intense hatred of what he had done already caused her to move beyond her limits. Whatever it took, she would stop him!

Before she moved to take action, however, Naraku turned away from his conversation with Inuyasha and faced the demon slayer. His eyes glittered beneath his mask… glittered with malice and greedy intent… not to mention arrogance. His pride absolutely knew no bounds. An example of that occurred a few months ago when he was searching for the last shard of the Shikon Jewel. The location of that shard turned out to be found in the world between this one and the afterlife. It was also in this location that Inuyasha's father's bones were currently resting… the place where the son of the great dog-demon leader had found his heirloom, Tessaiga. It was at this place that Inuyasha and his friends encountered the demon, Housenki, who in turn granted Inuyasha the power to expel multiple diamond shards from his blade when it was powered up to do it. It was called _Kongosouha…_ or the Adamant Barrage (English dub fans should recognize that name!). It was a powerful, devastating attack that could rip through any foe, no matter how strong, even an extra-powerful barrier that Naraku possessed once he had gained his new body at Hakurei Mountain. Naraku had learned from that experience to be more wary of Tessaiga! Speaking of that brutal attack…

Inuyasha was readying his sword for it now, watching the circular waves of wind curl about the blade, and any moment now it would be fully prepared to unleash… those diamond spears of doom (sorry, couldn't resist)!!

Naraku, watching from within the barrier's security, only smiled, and Sango thought she knew what would happen if Inuyasha were to expel the power of his sword. Futilely, Sango pushed with all her might against the wall of the shield, but it would not give… usually, people trapped in a barrier or ones that use them to protect themselves can enter or exit easily… but this one was different.

Since that method would not work, Sango tried her voice.

"Inuyasha! Don't use your attack on this barrier! It won't work on it! Do you hear me?" She cupped her hands about her mouth like a megaphone, but she figured her words would not be heard, regardless.

Naraku, silent now, only thought this: _This kind of barrier is indeed special, and for this occasion, its purpose will serve me very well. Go on, Inuyasha, and use the power of that marvelous sword of yours! The _Kongosouha _definitely is a powerful attack, but any attack on this barrier is not only deflected back at the striker, but it will also absorb into the barrier itself, impacting all who are in it, and your friend, the young demon slayer, is no exception. So do it, Inuyasha! Release the sweet power of your weapon! And doing so will unlock part one of my plan…_

Again and again, Sango tried to get Inuyasha's attention; she waved her arms, flapped them like a bird, screamed high and low, pounded on the barrier's walls and tried everything else she could; it was no use.

Naraku, watching this, grinned… pleased with himself for creating such a unique barrier. Although Sango did not know it, this barrier did not transmit any sound to the outside world… so… the only way to contact someone outside the barrier was to do it telepathically… or… if you were really strong… like Naraku, for instance… you could enhance your voice so it echoed around the whole shield, and parts of it would shake, allowing sound to be transmitted to the listener… Inuyasha, in this case. That was how Naraku had spoken with him a few moments ago. This _taijiya_, unfortunately for herself, did not seem to realize this little detail… Alas. He sighed, still pleased with himself, and prepared to watch Inuyasha seal his own fate.

As if in slow motion, Sango watched, helplessly, as Inuyasha raised his sword. He had moved into a certain position, a position which Sango knew very well, and would not be able to stop.

Complete silence inside the barrier…

Silence…

Silence…

Kirara and Naraku were too quiet…

Sango could her heart beating wildly against her chest…

Then…

"SANGO!!" a voice suddenly shouted, piercing throughout the barrier so that it made Sango cringe from both the sudden noise of the shout and the ringing it made on the barrier's walls; evidently, sound could not be heard from the people inside the barrier to the outside, but voices and other noises could be heard from the people outside to the people inside. Sango held her hands to her ears for a moment to block out the sound… when it was gone, she looked, and did a double-take.

Outside, on the ground, Inuyasha had lowered his sword, the waves of wind long since diminished from his pausing. Kagome still lay on the ground, looking like a breathless doll, Shippou, whom Sango just noticed for the first time, was lying on Kagome's chest, tears flowing down his face; although she could not hear it from this distance, she knew that the young _kitsune_ was crying. The one who had shouted was Miroku, whom Sango also just realized was there. He was standing a little back from Inuyasha, who still held his blade to the spot where he was about to fire the diamond spears.

"_Houshi-sama_?" Sango cried, hardly able to believe it. They had all come to her rescue, even the lecherous priest!

Miroku was not sobbing, as Shippou was, but his face was lit with an insane urge not to… it was mixed with radiant anger that Sango could almost feel emanating from him.

Naraku, who had been silent and enigmatic for a while, now spoke.

"Well, if it isn't the holy monk, come to pay his last respects before the woman he loves passes into the afterlife! My, what a perfect day! I choose this day to come out of hiding and gather all my most powerful enemies, with the exception of one, right to me! How lucky!" He laughed, the sound ringing through the air. But then, he stopped just as quickly. His voice turned businesslike.

"Houshi, if you choose to open your _Kazaana _and suck in all that you please, do so at your leisure…but…" His voice trailed off, and from some interior part of his robe he pulled out a familiar-looking bee's nest. With one flick of the wrist that was not holding the hive, the hive itself materialized out of the barrier, and almost directly in Miroku's face. He swatted it away with his staff, but it only flew away from him and exploded into the nasty insects which make it up… the Saimyoshou. Naraku finished his statement.

"But even you would not be _that _foolish, would you?"

_Dammit_, Miroku thought.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author Note: Hey, IY fans! (or people who are just reading this fic to kill time; hey there are people like that, you're listening to one…) I hope this story is capturing at least some of your interests! And I have to thank RoseCrystal for giving me her feedback and opinions on the fic… reviews are greatly appreciated! Oh, if some of you are wondering how, in chapter 3, Miroku knew Sango was in Naraku's barrier? That and hopefully all the rest of your current questions will be answered here… also, I'd like to know how I'm doing grammatically, too, so if you see any errors or anything please let me know!**

**Arigatou!**

**OK, enough ranting by me…. on to the story.**

**Chapter 4 – Drawn In**

**Meanwhile, away from the action, a group of people meet in an old, abandoned cave…**

"**Kohaku…" a voice said softly, and the young demon slayer slowly turned in that direction, to see Kagura glaring at him, although it was not hate or anger that mirrored in her eyes; it was a strange kind of curiosity. She took him aside for a moment, separating them from Kanna, Naraku's Infant (coughheartcough) and Hakudoushi, who looked on curiously.**

"**Now, Kohaku… I just wanted to tell you (and I know that you can hear me, too) that I have been watching you for a while. You seem to be following Naraku's every command like a well-trained robot, yet I always see in your eyes… something else… something that was not there before you attacked that village a while back." The village she was referring to was the one in which the Infant was hidden, located next to a castle, before Abi-hime's birds ransacked the place. At that time, Kohaku was ordered to protect Akago from any pursuers (namely Inuyasha and his friends) and then he was ordered to kill all of the people surrounding him and the baby; even though he did do away with some of the villagers, it was at this moment that Kohaku's memories suddenly came flooding back to him. At that moment, he remembered _everything_, from his sister, to his father and fellow villagers, up until the day he murdered everyone at that castle… the day he had first fallen in Naraku's devious trap. **

**Now, standing here, and even then, after he had left the village Abi's birds had practically destroyed, pretending to continue following Naraku's command, Kohaku was now taking a large risk. If he tripped up even a little in his playacting, it would be all over for him. Naraku would extract the jewel shard from his back, he would die, and he would be one less pawn in the demon's operation. Whatever it took, he would not let that happen; his goal in life now (or can you say limbo?) was to destroy the one who had put him through all of this torture. Now that Kagura (who at least had some sense enough to betray Naraku) knew his little secret, or rather, thought she knew his secret, he had one more way to get out of this. But even with her, how could it be done, and done right, before he was discovered?**

**Kagura continued. **

"**Boy, I know exactly what happened at that village, and don't you dare refute me… I may have been the second of Naraku's children, but I am not as stupid as he! He may not have noticed your little actions at the village, but I was watching you the whole time he was telepathically commanding you… you refused him again… you've done it before. That is proof that you have regained your memories (not to mention your senses…), and you have to be very careful about it now, because if he were to find out…" Her voice trailed off, but the boy knew exactly what she had been about to say, or pretty much knew.**

Back at the barrier…

**The Hell insects buzzed around Miroku, threatening him to close off his wind tunnel… it was always like this when Naraku was around; he was still too cowardly to take everyone on on his own, so he always sends in the stupid insects. Damn! Why did everything always have to be so complicated? And Kagome-sama in this condition…**

"**Houshi…" Naraku called from inside his barrier, "I hope you are not thinking of a way to rescue Sango, here, because no matter what you do think of, it is futile. This barrier _cannot be broken by the implements you mortals possess_!" At that last comment, Inuyasha's ears went up, and his heart began to beat insanely again. Leaving him with the mortals, eh? He drew his sword with a flourish.**

"**Naraku, you bastard!" he yelled, thoughts of Kagome and many other things rushing through his head, further quickening the flow of blood throughout his body. This was too much… Sango trapped in some weird barrier with the enemy, Kagome out cold on the ground, probably close to death, Shippou paralyzed with sorrow on her chest and Miroku surrounded with his own little enemies. Today, Naraku had to die!**

"**Take this!" he shouted. "_Kaze no Kizu!" _ The blast of energy slammed from his sword, and into the barrier. **

"**Do it!" he urged, but as Naraku said, it was useless. But he could have sworn that a part of the barrier gave a little bit, pushed inward… _weakening._ Was his control over the sword's power a little more focused? Not now. The barrier remained as it had before, and the air was filled with Naraku's laughter.**

"**It shows how dull you are, Inuyasha! That little act of false heroism that probably sapped some power from you that could have been used later, I'm sure!" He continued to laugh, and then, all of a sudden, he started to rise into the air, emerging from the barrier's protection a few seconds later. His laughter quickly died away. It was as if he had no idea he was now no longer within the shield.**

"**Naraku!" someone yelled, and Inuyasha, Miroku and Naraku all turned to see Sango rising from the barrier, as well, atop Kirara who looked a little drunken, as if the barrier had been giving off some sort of sleep-inducing chemical. With a large flash of light and a noise like an explosion, the barrier faded away.**

"**How… how is this possible?" Naraku exclaimed, his voice low and almost fearful. "How did you break the barrier?" Sango looked confused for a moment, but then she answered.**

"**I used your distraction to my advantage, of course. I waited until you were busy, not looking at me or anything, then I just went for it, and made it through. I have no idea how… but I did."**

**Inuyasha knew how, he thought. When he used the Wind Scar last time, it weakened the shield enough for Sango to find a way through, and Naraku was so busy laughing at him, that he did not realize that the barrier was no longer there. And since no one was in it, its master gone, the barrier vanished.**

"**Well, you certainly have become smart, Sango, I commend you for your courage to defy me… however…" He raised his left hand, closed it into a fist, and then opened it again, to reveal the almost completed Shikon Jewel.**

"**Dear Kagome's life rests here in my hand." He laughed like he had before, and it seemed to go on forever…**

**_Now_ _back at the cave…_**

"**Kagura…" Hakudoushi said softly, from within the barrier that had appeared around him a few moments ago; he now hung suspended inside it, like a sort of marionette, waiting to be controlled by a puppet master. And as usual, the way he spoke was with such arrogance that he sounded much like Naraku himself, even though he looked nothing like his creator. **

"**What?" Kagura mumbled, in response, her face turned toward a wall opposite the barrier, so that her voice sounded muffled when she spoke. "I know I can't see you, but I am listening to you."**

"**Kagura!" Hakudoushi snapped. "Turn toward me when I talk to you! I may not be Naraku, but I can still order you around!" **

**_Now _Kagura was a little pissed.**

"**Listen here, you little brat! You may not be Naraku, you have that much right, but that doesn't mean that you can threaten me like that!"**

**The kid looked a little nonplussed. "I didn't _threaten _you; I just wanted you to know that I can order you around if I wish."**

**During this little argument, the boy named Kohaku just sat sedately in one corner of the small cave, next to Kanna, who held the Infant. But, for just one second, barely noticeable except to those that knew to look for it and when… Kohaku twitched when Hakudoushi enunciated the word _threaten. _Now, Hakudoushi looked like he was in his own little world.**

**Now, for those of you who don't really know what that means right there, it is this. Before Kohaku regained his memories at that castle a little while back, he was like an empty shell, kept alive by only a Shikon Jewel shard (which he still is, by the way), always under the immediate command of Naraku, who had salvaged his life in the first place when he was felled by those arrows at the first castle, where it all started. In other words, before he had reclaimed his memories, Kohaku had no emotion at all; he would just go by what was told to him; he felt no sorrow, no anger, no pain… absolutely nothing at all. At one time, he even tried to take his own life by stabbing his back with his own weapon (a sickle used by demon slayers), and then extracting the jewel shard from his body. Although all of this was probably set up by Naraku, anyway, to make it look like Kohaku was back to his former self. **

**Now, of course, the boy had to literally watch his back.**

"**Kagura…" Hakudoushi continued, apparently coming out of whatever reverie he had been in a few moments before, "I have something I want you to do… come here for a moment."**

**Kagura turned her head around very slowly.**

"**Kagura!" Hakudoushi snapped, his anger apparently surfaced again. "Do as you are told!" The wind sorceress sighed in defeat, considering that maybe now she did not have much of a choice in the matter.**

"**Okay, okay… I'll come. What do you want?"**

**She got up from the cave floor, walked over to the kid's barrier, where he was still floating like a rag doll, and looked impatiently in. Hakudoushi's eyes were shining with malice. **

"**Now, _wind sorceress_, if I were Naraku, I would have crushed your heart long ago because of your constant refusal to listen… even to me! Even now… I could ask him to do it… I'm sure he wouldn't mind…"**

**Kagura's eyes filled with instant fear.**

"**No!" she cried, her voice shaking. "I won't do it again! Please do not kill me yet…" She collapsed onto the floor, to her knees, almost as if begging him not to do it… which he did not… yet.**

"**Fine, Kagura… get up and stop groveling… you look like some sick puppy dog." Kagura immediately rose, unstable for a moment on her legs, then righted herself and stood upright, like a soldier at attention, eyes fixed on the boy.**

"**Good, Kagura. I see that you are perhaps finally coming to see reason. Now, are you listening to me now? Good. Because soon we have to get moving. Stage one of Naraku's plan starts at noon."**

_**Back at the vanished barrier…**_

**Naraku's laughter continued to resonate through the area, and even now that there was no barrier, it sounded even worse than it would have been, were it still there. The nearly completed Jewel glowed in his hand, and even though Inuyasha, Miroku and the others were a good distance away from him, they could see it as clearly as if it were hovering in front of each of their faces. **

**He picked it up from his hand on lifted it into the air, waving it around, as if taunting them to come and claim it.**

"**Now, I wonder if any of you would want this Jewel that I have in my hand right now… I know _you _would, Inuyasha. Don't try to hide it; I know what your heart's desire is, and if you believe that the girl who now lies unconscious at your feet has changed what your heart believes, think again, because I know, as well as you, that you care nothing for this girl. You would just leave her here to die, were I to give this Jewel to you right now… wouldn't you? Your one chance for ultimate power, to be what you have always wanted to be from the moment you first set eyes on this _Shikon no Tama. _Am I not right, Inuyasha? Don't try to deny it."**

**If Inuyasha was angry before, it was nothing compared to what he was now… he readied his sword for another blast; hatred and disgust burned in his eyes.**

"**Be careful!" Naraku warned, still holding the Jewel in the air, teasing them with it. "If you do not want that girl to die, to be separated from you forever, you will not strike me!" All the while, he thought, _this is going right according to plan, now let's see if Inuyasha takes the bait…_**

"**Do you hear me?" he continued. "If you don't want Kagome to lose her life so uselessly, then do not use your sword!"**

**At the moment, Inuyasha did not hear any word that came out from that guy's mouth; one emotion flickered in him now: revenge. Whether or not Kagome was dead, he would avenge whatever the hell happened to her, and he would do it quickly. He raised his sword high up into the air.**

**He prepared to unleash the power within… then…**

"**No, Inuyasha! Don't use your sword! This is exactly what he wants!"**

**It was Miroku's voice.**

**Inuyasha looked around, hating to pause in his revenge, but he had to see what the blasted monk wanted; damn, he sure had a way of manipulating you!**

"**What's exactly what he wants?" Inuyasha yelled, even though Miroku was only feet away from him. "Hell, I have my chance to kill this bastard once and for all, and you're telling me to _stop_, when you have to kill him, too, to fix your hand?" Miroku was silent for a moment, and then…**

"**This is probably all part of his trap! You know how he is, Inuyasha. Just think! Why would he want you to strike him with your Wind Scar, when he has the Jewel with him? Why is Kagome lying on the ground, unconscious? Just think about it! This is similar to what Tsubaki did that one time! Remember?" **

**Yeah, Inuyasha thought. I remember that old bitch. The dark priestess that once tried to curse Kagome by infecting her with some shards of the Jewel, so that she could kill him, in turn. And there was one segment in their little confrontation where Kagome was lying on the ground, dead to the world, just like now, with Tsubaki's _shikigami _trying to kill her in the process. Wait! That was similar to now! Why didn't he think of it before?**

**Naraku watched all of this with his smile growing wider and wider. They were falling into his trap little by little, playing into his hands more and more; it always worked in his favor… always. His little traps never failed him… never!**

"**Naraku," Sango called from above him, still flying on Kirara, "just what are you planning?" He looked up at her, his grin wider than ever, and simply said, "Why, Sango, didn't I tell you before, in the barrier?" She started to reply, but then suddenly screamed… screamed in pain… it was as if she were being tortured right here and now, by invisible enemies.**

"**Sango!" Miroku and Inuyasha shouted in unison (Shippou was still sobbing morosely on Kagome's chest; he hadn't spoken a word since she was cursed). **

"**What happened, Sango?" Inuyasha yelled up to her, but she did not seem to be able to hear him. Naraku called to him over the noise.**

"**Inuyasha, I forgot one important detail! The reason why Sango is screaming so torturously like that is because I gave a little something to her as well! But the only difference between hers and Kagome's is that one of them may turn out to be a little more lethal than the other! It's up to you, now, to decide which one that is, and who of the two of them you want to save!" He began to laugh again, and suddenly… a noise like an explosion rocked the surrounding countryside. He stopped, and looked around. Inuyasha and Miroku did the same. Sango had fallen down in her pain on Kirara, and was now silent. **

"**What was…" Inuyasha began, but he could not finish, because another huge blast rolled across the plains, and just then a colossal something began to take shape far away. It looked like some sort of funnel cloud, a purple one, similar to the ones that Naraku uses when he makes his random escapes. It quickly began to move toward the little group. **

"**Feh!" Naraku cursed. "They're early… oh well."**

**He looked in Inuyasha's direction.**

"**Inuyasha, I am sorry that I have to leave you all now, but I promise you, I will not disappear forever! The fun is not over yet… on the contrary, it has yet to even start!"**

**He closed the hand holding the Jewel, and then opened it again; the Jewel was gone. Then he reached up and tugged away the mask hiding his face, revealing it for the first time since they had met that day. His long black hair fell down about the costume, having been bunched up in some sort of tight bun with the mask on; his red eyes glared out at the group. **

"**And, so I part!" he exclaimed, his last words, as he suddenly started to dissolve into a cloud of poison gas.**

"**Wait, dammit!" Inuyasha raged, readying Tessaiga for the Wind Scar, but it was no use; Naraku, his fated enemy, quickly vanished from his sight; the cloud of poison gas that he had dispersed into faded away, the laughter echoing into oblivion, all the while, the huge purple funnel cloud in the distance was gaining on them.**

**Shit! Inuyasha thought. What can I do? He thought for a moment, but at the moment, all he could think of was tailing Naraku and beating the crap out of him. Then it hit him, almost literally. **

**He narrowly dodged an incoming piece of boulder that was being whipped around by the funnel, and readied his sword once again. The _Bakurryuha _could work, but then again… this cloud wasn't another demonic aura he was up against… or was it?**

"**Miroku!" he shouted to the priest, who was staring, as dumbstruck as he, apparently, at the approaching storm. "Get Kagome and Shippou the hell out of here! I'll try to stop this cloud!"**

**Miroku was still staring, entranced, at the cloud. Running over to him, Inuyasha smacked him hard across the face, finally rousing him. He looked at Inuyasha, then at the cloud, back to the hanyou, then down to Kagome, unconscious on the ground, with Shippou still screaming his eyes out on her chest. **

"**Get them out of here!" Inuyasha pressed, motioning hurriedly to the funnel. It was about 500 feet away now, and getting closer all the time. Now that it was closer, a strange ringing sound could be heard coming from it; it sounded like a sort of siren from the top of an ambulance, but this one was much more annoying; it just went on in a high-pitched wailing tone, one that wanted to make all the hair on your body stand up from it.**

**Miroku said, "But what about you, Inuyasha? We don't know for sure of what that weird cloud is… maybe it's like a portal to another dimension, or something…" But when he got no response from the stoic half-demon, he nodded to him to show that he understood and then quickly grabbed up Kagome and Shippou, who had for some reason passed out… probably from extreme sorrow or fear…? That would be remedied later, though, when Kagome woke up… if she woke up. Inuyasha hoped with all of his heart that she eventually would… and what was this weird plan that Naraku was hatching? One that Sango seemed to know something of? And speaking of Sango…**

**She was still riding on Kirara, floating inches above where the barrier previously had been, and was staring, in the same, transfixed fashion as Miroku, at the approaching funnel cloud. **

"**Sango!" Inuyasha shouted up to her, over the noise of the storm; it was making quite a racket, now. "What are you doing? Get over here!" His words, however, appeared to be falling upon deaf ears, as the _taijiya _continued to stare off in the opposite direction.**

**When he could not take it anymore, Inuyasha leaped into the air, separating himself from Miroku, who was escaping as fast as he could in the other direction, disregarding the debris which was now flying all around him (he would be safe for a while in his fire-rat robe, anyway) and approaching the girl on top of the cat (doesn't that sound like some sort of children's story?).**

**When he reached her, he leapt atop Kirara next to Sango and extended his hand and slapped her across the face, yelling her name right into her ears. She screamed, aimed to retaliate, missed and almost toppled off Kirara. _Now _she appeared to be back to her usual self. But she began to look in the direction that Naraku had escaped from again.**

"**Sango, hurry up! We have to escape this storm!" Inuyasha probed. "If we don't, something might happen to us! We don't know what kind of sorcery Naraku has planned!" **

**Sango, however, was thinking of what Naraku had said when they were inside his barrier before…**

**_The answer to solving my riddle will lie with you, Sango… you will find all of the answers you seek at twelve noon tomorrow, when the sun has reached its highest point… then all will be made clear to you._ But what in the world was he talking about? All the answers you seek?**

"**If you don't move, you will be sucked in! And don't you think that you can be brave by having me leave you here, because I'm staying with you no matter what happens. Comrades do not abandon each other, right?"**

**And it was these words, more than anything, that made Sango turn her head and look in his direction.**

"**You care about me that much?" she said softly, and it was done so softly that she could barely be heard over all the other ruckus going on around them. "You care about me when I abandoned you all, thinking it was Kohaku, and then getting you all involved in Naraku's schemes once again? You don't think me low at all?"**

**Inuyasha would hear nothing of it.**

"**I don't care about that! What matters is that you are alive, and unharmed, and Naraku hopefully did nothing to you! He didn't, did he?"**

**As soon as he finished asking that, a sharp pain rolled down Sango's left arm, in exactly the same spot where that mysterious hole had appeared when she had pissed Naraku off earlier, in the barrier. She cried out and gripped it tightly, teeth gritted against the momentary agony.**

"**Are you all right?" Inuyasha asked, leaning over her arm. She jerked it away quickly. "It's nothing," she said hastily, "I just scratched it on my way here." Something in her words made Inuyasha disbelieve her, and he persisted.**

"**What are you talking about? Considering the way you're acting, you are in more pain than you are letting on. Come on… what's wrong? You can tell me."**

**And with a motion that completely shocked Inuyasha, Sango violently reached out and shoved the _hanyou _hard off of Kirara, her eyes full of a furied frenzy he had never before seen. But her action rivaled that of something he had seen before from Naraku and his minions. **

**As he crashed to the ground, caught completely off guard so that he could not catch himself and land safely, one thought occurred to him, the only thought that really made sense: _She's being cursed, too._**

**His last thought before he blacked out was that the funnel cloud, which had looked so far away before, now seemed blindingly close. And before he could get up or make any sort of reaction to rouse himself, he was drawn in.**

**Far away from Inuyasha, Sango and the twister, Miroku staggered forward with Kagome-sama and Shippou slung across his shoulders. He was breathing heavily from the effort, and felt he could not go much farther.**

**_Inuyasha, _he thought, his mind backlogged with all sorts of ideas of what had befallen him, the hanyou, Kagome-sama, Shippou and Sango since Kagome-sama had sensed the Sacred Jewel, _I hope you escape that thing, and reach us safely, so you can see Kagome-sama again… and protect her like you always do._**

**Back where the funnel had since absorbed Inuyasha and drawn him into its depths, Sango calmly watched from above as the debris swirled around her, yet never making any contact with her body; she was completely unharmed by anything. As she watched, the funnel started to shimmer, as if it were an illusion, and then it slowly faded away, disappearing into nothingness. **

**When it was completely gone and the random crap it had picked up had settled to the ground, Sango started to float away from the scene.**

**And as she departed, one thought ran through her mind: _One down, 3 to go, then it will be complete._**

**If someone were there and could hear the girl as she left, they would have heard, faintly, the sound of her laughing… and it wouldn't have been ordinary laughing… it would have been cruel laughter… laughter that knew no mercy.**

**And someone _was _there… someone who had hid during the whole confrontation with Naraku, his barrier, Sango and Inuyasha… someone who had heard the whole thing, and was now terrified by what it prophecied.**

**Myouga the flea heard all of it and was greatly worried. **

**Well, how was that chapter?**

**The next one will detail Inuyasha and his account on what he discovered inside the strange world he is now in. What will happen to him there? What is wrong, exactly, with Sango? And just what is Naraku hoping to accomplish?**

**I hope you guys are all enjoying this, and I will try to update soon… but in the meantime… be sure to review and tell me what you think! Then I might be inclined to continue… if all of my sanity is not drained before the weekend (heh heh). **


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or anything related to it. Rumiko Takahashi totally owns that role, and congratulations to her for reaching her 10th anniversary chapter! Way to go!

Author Note: Some of you may be wondering how I'm finding so much time to update… well, as you probably have guessed, I have a lot of time on my hands… scary, huh? Anyway, I have big plans in store for this in-coming story, with a lot of surprises coming up! Also… all of you who were wondering what happened to Inuyasha and his friends? All of your questions will be answered (I hope) in this chapter and the ones to come.

One more thing: If any of you have a hard time reading the text of the chapters, whether it be the bold issue or a different and strange font, let me know. I always like to experiment with the different fonts to see what it will look like on the site.

So, without further ado… on to the story! (does drum roll on desk)

_Chapter 5 – An Unfamiliar World_

**As a recap…**

"Sango, what the hell are you doing?" Inuyasha cried, as the young demon slayer lunged for him. But he could not dodge the sudden, unexpected movement in time; before he knew it, he was plummeting from Kirara and the ground all of a sudden did not seem so far away.

CRASH! With a loud smash, he smacked into the ground, all the breath knocked out of his lungs. He groaned, recovering quickly, the demon half of him pushing the pain away before it manifested into something irreversible. Eyes blinking constantly, he stared up at the silent, enigmatic _taijiya._ Her eyes revealed absolutely no emotion, or any feelings of any kind, as they met his own. At that moment, as the hanyou looked up at Sango, he realized something… she looked just like someone both he and her knew. But that was impossible! Naraku had nothing to do with Sango like he did with Kohaku! Didn't he…? But the way she looked at him like she was doing reminded him exactly of when he had seen Kohaku at the height of his absolute… robotic-ness behavior… being completely in control of Naraku, bound to his every word.

"Sango, what is wrong with you?" he yelled up at her. But whether she heard him or not, she gave no sign. Almost immediately, the two of them, her and Kirara, started to float away from the scene, and that purple funnel cloud was only getting closer to him.

"Wait, dammit!" he screamed, jumping up, but not doing it properly. Unstable under him, his legs felt like jelly and pushed him right back to the ground. The world swam before his eyes, as if he were underwater, looking above the surface at the sky, as it made everything above the water look all shimmery and out of place. That's how he felt now… and he did not like it.

"What is going… on?" he said to himself, the words coming out in a jumble, in a way that he himself could barely understand. The world did not look right at all; it was hazy and it seemed as if everything were covered by a light layer of yellowish fog.

Suddenly, he felt very sick. The earth spun and tilted and only helped to quicken the dizziness.

"Shit…" he mumbled. "My body… what's happening…?"

But the rest of his body would not respond to his plea. He felt himself sink downward… down… down… into deep blackness… blackness of the creature who had put him through his pain the first place…

_Meanwhile…_

"Miroku…" Shippou said softly, finally rousing from sleeping on Kagome-sama's chest; she still had not woken. "What is happening?"

The houshi had no plausible answer; he only stared at the young fox-demon and felt his eyes water with adoration and sorrow. After a moment, though, he did say, "Well, Shippou… I don't really know… but I know from the bottom of my heart that Kagome-sama will be okay." However, at the same time, also at the bottom of his heart, he couldn't help but wonder just a little.

"Also…" Shippou continued, wiping tears off his face with a flourish, refusing to look at Kagome-sama; Miroku did not need to ask, or even wonder, why. "Where is Inuyasha? I thought he was with us earlier."

As he ran with them, Miroku could not help but look behind him, but in the distance where he had left him, he could not locate the hanyou anywhere. "I'm sure he will be here, soon…" was all he said in response to Shippou's question.

_What is happening? _Miroku thought after a while. _I mean… so much has occurred today, and it all seemed to have started when Kagome-sama sensed the Shikon Jewel. So much ill and misfortune befalls those who come in contact with the Jewel. Its power must be quelled at all costs! But how, though? As long as Naraku is after it, it will only gather more and more foul blood. What on earth can we do?_

But like many other thoughts of his today, the monk could not seem to shake the feeling that the power of the Sacred Jewel would never be stopped completely.

Far away, in the cave where Naraku, Kanna, Kagura, Akago, Kohaku and Hakudoushi were residing, Naraku felt the first part of his plan go into motion.

Although they did not say anything, he knew the others felt it, too… although… his eyes lingered on Kohaku a split second longer than anyone else when he looked them all over.

"So, Naraku…" Kagura said, quite casually. "Just what exactly are we doing here?" As soon as she finished her question, she knew she would probably get punished; her remark was a touch smart, after all… or so it seemed. Naraku merely grinned.

His scarlet eyes met hers, and she did not flinch.

"Kagura… you will just have to wait and see, now, won't you?" That was all he said, and Kagura did not like it at all. It made her think he was… just a little suspicious of her, and of Kohaku, as well. She saw how his eyes paused on his for just a little longer than anyone else's his met just a few minutes ago.

"Okay," was all she said in response, and he looked away from her, still smiling, as if inwardly pleased with himself.

_Now, Inuyasha… _Naraku thought, when Kagura tore her eyes away from his, _let's see how you survive… not to mention your companions… this may be the most diabolical scheme I have ever devised for you all… and I hope you enjoy it to its fullest extent…_

He gave a soft laugh, and reached into an inner pocket of his robes, where he extracted, once again, the nearly completed Jewel.

_This Jewel… this _Shikon no Tama… _is most definitely a dream-come-true…_

Still snickering, he put the Jewel back into his clothes, handling it as carefully as if it were a very delicate piece of glass that could break at even the smallest amount of pressure applied to it.

Then… he waited… waited for his little game to begin. His every nerve pulsed with excitement; he knew he could not be stopped this time… he knew it for sure. Except…

His happiness faded for just a moment when he realized that there was still a way available for him to fail… and that person had better _not _fail, or else… they might meet the same fate that occurred those months ago. His grin returned, and this time… it stayed for a while.

_What…the…hell…_ Those were just a few words that ran through Inuyasha's mind right now. He tried to get up, but it was as if someone had attached a pair of 2-ton weights to his legs while he was unconscious; he was not able to move them at all.

"Me, unconscious! How ridiculous!" he snapped to himself, feeling his voice getting groggier every time he tried to speak. But he knew, deep down, that he was not that invulnerable. He had, in fact, gotten unconscious many times before, and it was almost always the fault of Naraku that it happened. But it would not happen again today… no, sir!

His eyes had been closed this whole time, and he tried to open them now, but they felt as heavy as his legs did.

_What in the world happened? _he thought, and he could barely seem to be able to think, let alone speak.

He just lay there for a while, slowly feeling himself recover; it would take a little while, though… although he was half-demon, he was also half-human, so that would interfere in his healing. But, eventually, he would get better.

He tried to think of what had happened before he had passed out, but now it all seemed like a horrible nightmare; as much as he tried to remember it, the faster the details got away from him… almost like trying to keep something in your hand that just did not want to stay.

He _thought _there was a girl, but now he was not so sure. There had been other people, but the strange thing was… Naraku was the only one he did remember. But why? He knew there were other people involved… weren't there?

In their cave, far away from any of their foes… Naraku was very upset. He had been looking through Kanna's mirror. He could see where Inuyasha was… he always could, but that was not why he was upset. He was upset, because… Inuyasha remembered who he, Naraku, was.

"Damn that Inuyasha!" he suddenly raged, causing Kagura and Kohaku to flinch. Hakudoushi and Kanna just remained as irresolute as ever.

Kagura almost gasped, because if Naraku had seen Kohaku flinch like that (and it was quite a flinch, too), then he would know two things: one… he would know he was no longer under his control, and two… the boy could feel emotions again.

But he did not notice these things, because his anger was fixed on someone else… and it was this… and only this… that saved the young demon slayer.

"Curse him…" Naraku continued, hate pulsing through him. "The spell was not complete."

Clearly, he had spoken loud enough (he had, in fact, thought had had practically whispered it) for Kagura to hear his words, for she said, "What do you mean by that?"

Naraku whirled around, facing the wind sorceress once again, red eyes flashing, all traces of any previous smile vanished. In an instant, a pulsating, glowing red heart appeared in his hand. Kagura glanced at it, and that was all it took to fill her eyes with sudden fear. She backed away, went over to the nearest wall and sat by it, practically shaking with a mixture of fear and resentment.

Naraku smiled again, pleased. With a tiny squeeze, the heart disappeared from his hand, gone into whatever oblivion he sent it to for the time being; as long as he held her heart, Kagura could never be free, and she knew it.

Now that he had done it, he felt a kind of regret. It was not the kind of regret that one feels when one hurts someone close to them, as he had almost done (for Kagura was nowhere near a daughter to him). Instead, it was the kind that makes one feel that they did something too rashly, and that was just what his weakness was; he tended to do some things before he thought about them, and they usually ended up failing. He could think of numerous times that had occurred. One of the most notable times was when he had been born of Onigumo from all of those demons. The first time he had tried to take Kikyou as his woman (that, actually, was Onigumo's fault in the first place, because Naraku, comprised of the demons, only wished to kill the woman that had slain so many of them… in a simple word… revenge. Things had not, of course, worked out to the demon spider's advantage, for he had been cast into a deep, dark place by Naraku after Kikyou took the Jewel of Four Souls with her into the afterlife… and after sealing that pathetic half-demon to the tree.

Thinking of Kikyou now made him seethe with anger all over again, because he should _not _have any feelings for that miko witch, anyway. So why now, after all this time… all this time, after discarding Onigumo's heart at Hakurei-zan… Dammit, this should not be!

He was so stressed that he almost forgot about his other offspring/minion in the cave, and turned around to look at them now, eyes roving over each face in turn, passing right over Kohaku's this time; if the boy intended to betray him, he would make sure that he did not know it until it was too late.

Gathering himself, he now said, "Come, all of you… it begins. We've got a lot ahead of us, now, and I don't want any of you to fail me. For you should know the consequences if you do."

Devoid and completely expressionless, Kanna merely looked at him, holding Akago, until she nodded once, softly and almost not even noticeable; Hakudoushi glanced at him once from inside his barrier, where he floated, hung suspended in the air, looking always like an inanimate rag doll, and he then nodded once, like Kanna did; Kagura merely continued to stare at the wall she had sat by, moving not a muscle; Kohaku was sitting on the floor a few feet away from Kagura, his head lowered and his body perfectly still. All the while Naraku was talking, his mind was filled with just one thought, and one feeling. He missed his sister.

_Aneue, _he thought sadly. He wondered if they ever would be reunited again.

"Kohaku?" Sango said the name very softly, as if she had actually heard him speak, even though they were miles away from each other.

_No, _a voice commanded inside her head. _You must not think of him; he is lost to you, remember?_

Pain ripped through her head all of a sudden; the feeling was so immediate and overbearing that she almost toppled off of Kirara, but the faithful pet caught her before she did. Kirara did not quite understand what was going on, but she knew she had to wait it out to see.

Sango clutched her head, moaning. Emotions waved through her mind, and each time she tried to think of something related to her friends, brother or family, that horrible voice blocked it out.

_Not yet, Sango-chan_, that voice whispered. _We have lots of work to do before you see them again… if you see them again._ It uttered a dry laugh, causing the taijiya to almost fall of Kirara again. Abruptly, the pain lessened, until it hurt no more than a minor headache.

When she straightened up, her mind was clear; she knew what to do, now.

_Now, Sango… let's go. Go to make all of your wishes come true in an instant. Are you ready? Then follow my words, and heed them well…_ And Sango listened.

"Where the hell am I?" Inuyasha asked himself. He was finally able to rise, albeit slowly, and was now walking along.

The world did not look familiar at all to him; either he had really been knocked out by that fall, or he was thrown into some weird parallel universe.

Right now, he was in some sort of forest; at least, that was what it looked like to him. Huge, towering evergreen trees surrounded him, bushes of every kind and color flourished on the forest floor, and birds sang in the trees. It was like a perfect picture of paradise. But it couldn't be paradise… could it?

Suddenly, he heard a noise behind him; a kind of rustling, like a cloak trailing over dead leaves on the ground. Without thinking, he drew his sword. With a yellow flash of brilliance, the true form of Tessaiga came forth from its sheathe. He stared at it.

_Wow! _he thought, marveling over how awesome-looking the sword was. _I didn't I had such a cool sword! _

Suddenly, a voice spoke from behind him, and it helped to unlock one part of his fragmented memory.

"Why, if it isn't the widdle puppy dog from that day!" The voice sounded like a little girl's, exaggerated and annoying to him. All of a sudden, he knew all too well who that voice belonged to, but what was she doing in a strange world like this?

"I know… who you are…" he said, his voice coming out forced, as if he did not use it much.

The response was silence, but he knew who it was.

Yura of the Hair stood behind him.

TBC!

Oh no! What happened? What's going on??

Find out in the next chapter!

CLIFFHANGERS GALORE: I LOVE IT!!

snickers about cliffhangers

See ya'll later! (no I'm not southern)


	7. Chapter 6

Author Note: I realize that some of you may be confused as hell as to what is going on so far… but as I have told another reader… if I say anything now… it will ruin the whole thing… all of these events that are in the fic right now are building up to a grand climax that will have all of your stunned, I guarantee it! This I can say… when Inuyasha landed in the "strange world", which will be discussed more thoroughly here… he somehow lost most of his memories (including knowing he had a sword, Kagome, Sango etc.) and the only reason he knew about Naraku was because the rage he felt toward the demon was strong enough to prevail through Naraku's spell. I know you are all confused, but bear with me for a while longer… wipes sweat off forehead

Let's begin!

One more note (snickers): From now on, I will no longer be known as ExIYFan12688… as of the next chapter (7) I will be called ChaoticYoukai667… cool huh? (NO?!! Oh you just wait… lol) If you have any questions, concerns, things to rant about, whatever… please do… I love all of that. And also, keep R&Ring!

Now let's begin!

_**Chapter 6 – Demon Déjà vu**_

"You…" Inuyasha started, but not seeming to be able to find the right words. He knew who was in front of him, but it was as if his mind were not capable of letting him know.

Vaguely, he remembered, a long time ago (hell, it seemed to him like _years _ago), he had seen and fought this demon in front of him (_was_ she a demon, though?). If he remembered correctly (which, at the moment, was very hard), this girl had used hair to attack… and holy shit… was it annoying to break through.

"I see you remember me, if not a little…" the girl said, removing a red comb from the pocket of the slightly-revealing clothes she was wearing. She had black hair, tied up with a cute little red bow (I can't believe I just put the word "cute"), the kind that young girls would use to dress dolls and probably put in their own hair, strange yet interesting violet eyes, which he had seen before (and that he could remember, a little distinctly), and she was kind of short, compared to him.

"I am Yura of the Hair… I am very pleased to be reacquainted with you… Inuyasha."

That name sparked something in his head; in fact, both names did. The first one was obviously the girl's, but the second… was his name truly Inuyasha? Suddenly, he had the worst headache in his life…

_A boy runs across an ancient bridge over sparkling, tranquil waters under a moonlit sky, chasing a ball thrown by a group of spectators. The boy is young, wears a bright red kimono and has two ears on top of his head, like a dog's. The boy runs over to a woman with long black hair, who is sitting on the other side of the bridge, next to an imperial-looking building. The boy runs into the woman's arms, and she embraces him. He asks her one simple question, but it makes the woman cry, and he does not know why. "Mother… what's a… half-breed?" Silent tears flow down the woman's face, and she cannot answer… but she knew…_

Inuyasha lay twitching on the ground, Yura looking placidly down at him, as visions raced through his mind.

_It is very late, the boy is running again, but he is not chasing something… something is chasing _him. _A small group of horrendous-looking demons pursue the boy, who fearfully runs in the opposite direction. One carries a large club, tipped with deadly-looking spikes, dripping and glistening with blackish blood. It calls to the boy in a gritted tone, sounding like an axe scraping across stale wood. _

"_Come here, little boy!" they call after him. He just keeps running, but no matter how fast or far he runs, the demons always seem to be getting closer to him. _

_He dodges around a bend, hoping to lose them, and comes upon the edge of a cliff, where he knows he is trapped…_

"Aaagh!" Inuyasha screamed, rolling around on the ground, Yura looking just as calmly as ever down upon him.

After a few moments, he stopped writhing and screaming and rose, tottering for a moment on his unstable legs. What the hell was happening? And what was that vision just now?

"I see you are succumbing to the power of this forest," Yura said suddenly, jarring the hanyou from his thoughts and causing him to shoot bolt upright.

"What do you mean? Just who are you? And what am I doing here?" Tears almost began to flow down his face, but he stopped them before they emerged. This was not the time to grieve… wasn't it? He did not know.

"Would you care to tell me what is going on here?" Inuyasha continued, hands balled into fists at his sides; he didn't exactly know why, but he felt like the girl in front of him, looking all innocent with her little red comb, needed to get her face punched in, so hard that it would never look the same way again.

"_Why, of course I will!" _the girl screamed, totally without warning, causing Inuyasha to flinch and almost topple to the ground once again.

"You don't have to shout, you know!" he yelled back, and she did not flinch, or move at all; it was as if she was not even supposed to be there; and she wasn't, right? Wasn't she supposed to be _dead? _

"I see you are confused, which is to be expected, I warrant… okay, I will tell you a little… but the rest is up to you, got it?"

Now his head _really _hurt like hell.

"So it has begun," Naraku spoke from inside the cave; his voice was so soft you could almost hear water dripping in a distant part of the cavern, "my little game."

He waited to hear if Kagura would raise up any comment or complain as she always did, but he was just a little more than surprised to find that she was completely silent. He smiled in satisfaction.

_Just a little longer, _he thought. His red eyes gleamed.

"Miroku…sama…" a voice said, speaking as softly and quietly as if each and every word was an extreme effort.

The houshi was brought out of a small doze with an abrupt start, as he looked hastily around.

He had been running with Kagome-sama over his back for almost two hours after Inuyasha had sent them away from him while he confronted that funnel cloud, and after all this time, there was no sign of either him or Sango. But he knew, no matter what the hanyou's wishes were, that he and Shippou had to rest for at least a little while.

But now… as he heard the small voice speak, he wondered if he was going crazy or not from lack of rest (he had, in fact, just lain down). He looked over to where he had set Kagome-sama down, at the foot of a large helm.

She was still laying down, in the exact stance she had been in after collapsing from whatever Naraku did to her, and now she weakly turned her head toward the priest, eyes open only slightly, looking glazed over a little, as if she had some form of cataracts.

"Kagome-sama!" Miroku cried, possibly a little louder than was necessary, because Shippou, who had been snoozing next to the girl's body, woke with a start.

"Kagome?" the young fox said, uncertainty veiled in his voice, as if he could not believe Kagome was laying there in front of him. After all, he had been crying his eyes out on her chest for so long previously, it was a wonder he did not start up again after looking at her and seeing her alive and (slightly) well.

"Yes…Shippou-chan…I'm all right, I think…I think…my body rejected the curse Naraku used on me…I think…" Every word she spoke made Miroku flinch, because he could not stand hearing her sound so weak and frail like that; she was usually bursting with energy. At one time other than this, though he would not have recalled (considering he was unconscious, himself), when the group fought the Shichinintai at Mount Hakurei, Mukotsu, one of the members of the mercenary group, had poisoned him, Kagome-sama and Sango, so that they were all out of commission for a long time. It took Shippou, Kirara, Inuyasha and Myouga the flea to save them; if they hadn't been there for them, they would be three members short, now. And although he had not done it directly, Naraku was pretty much the one who had been pulling the strings behind that scene. And they had all fallen into his trap, as always (including the Shichinintai, in this case).

That was also the first time any one of them had seen Inuyasha's tears… tears for knowing that his previously fallen comrades were now going to be all right.

"Kagome-sama… please don't speak… you sound terrible, and it would only do you more harm if you tried to talk in this condition," Miroku said now, soothingly, trying to make her understand; she could be really firm, at times.

She managed a weak, yet grim, smile, as she glanced in his direction again.

"I'm all right, Miroku-sama… I just needed to rest a little while. Where is Inuyasha, and Sango-chan?"

Since the monk could not answer that himself, he knew it would take some time to explain to her what had happened since she lapsed into that near-death state.

So he began.

Meanwhile, far away from the little group in the meadow, Sango was making her way closer and closer to (as of yet) an unknown destination.

_We have lots of work to do, Sango-chan,_ the voice whispered at one point, causing the taijiya to wince slightly, but she was growing more used to it now. Pretty soon, she would not even react to it, but instead follow its every command… because that's what _they _do.

_Very soon, one will die, _it said now, jarring Sango from her current thoughts. They had been strange, indeed. There had been a weird girl in one of them,a girl with a bow and a quiver of arrows slung across her back. She had long, black hair, piercing brown eyes and a thin mouth. The voice had made mention to this girl once before.

_That person will be the first to go,_ the voice chuckled, and Sango chuckled, also. As she flew further and further away from her old friends, her eyes began to take on a more familiar and eerie-looking red color…

The first part of the plan was now underway. The rest of the pieces just had to fall into play.

---

"And now," Naraku stated softly, but coldly, to the members around the cave, the smile he had earlier now practically lighting up his features, "the fun really begins."

TBC

Note: As I said before, as of chapter 7, I will be known as ChaoticYoukai667, so be on the lookout for me! Don't forget to tell me what you think of my story so far! And I know a lot of you are still confused, but just bear with me.


	8. Chapter 7

**Here is Chapter 7! (cheers all around) (crickets)**

**Note: Just to clear some things up… in case any of you are wondering, Inuyasha is the only one right now that is in a different world! The others are still "in reality", so to speak. More to come later, however!**

**One more thing: a warning to sensitive readers… this chapter contains gruesome imagery, and those of you who don't like this sort of thing probably should not read it… but if you are tough (and I know most of you are), then I know you can do it! **

**Chapter 7 – The Separate Challenges**

"Inuyasha," Yura said, pleasantly enough, "I know how confused you are, and I hope to ease that difficult and painful feeling by at least letting you know where it is you are now. Would you like to know?"

He knew she was playing with him, but the funny thing was… he did not realize it until the very last minute.

"Okay, I'll let you talk… I guess it's the least I can do since I don't even know where the hell I am or how I got here." He then waited.

Yura's reaction to that statement took Inuyasha a little by surprise, but he held in whatever he was going to say next with great effort; the girl was beet-red in the face and laughing her freakin' little head off.

The sound was like a thousand bells ringing all at once, and the pierce of it all made his ears ache and feel like they were going to burst.

When it went on for as long as he could stand it, he finally yelled, "Okay, shut up! I don't see what's so funny, but I would appreciate it if you would just talk to me now!" He was so angry for a moment that his hand strayed to his sword hilt; Yura's manic laughter ceased at once.

"That's better," Inuyasha continued, "now just talk to me, all right? I want to know where I am, how I got here and what I can do to get out. Because I know I was doing something before I got here."

Yura's annoying laughter may have stopped, but now the silence that followed his words was so thick and heavy that he kind of wished she would set off again. She did not, however. Her purple eyes remained locked on Tessaiga.

He followed her gaze, and his own gold-colored eyes settled on his sword, as well.

"What's wrong? It's just a sword… it can't do anything…" But he did not finish. A voice echoed around the forest that they were now in. It was a girl's voice… at least, he thought it was… until it showed itself.

"_Well, if it isn't Inuyasha! It's been forever since I saw you last… how have you been?"_

Both Yura and Inuyasha's eyes darted around the woods about them, but they detected nothing.

"_Oh, don't worry about finding me," _the voice continued, and the hanyou thought he caught a little sense of amusement in that voice, as if it were playing with them, showing off whatever immense and grand power it apparently had.

Inuyasha looked at Yura, still holding her comb, and although he did not notice it before, he now felt something snaking along his robe sleeve. He grabbed in the direction he felt it, and was surprised to find that it felt like really tough hair, almost like a taut wire.

"_Yura," _the voice said now, and the girl snapped to attention, _"you know what you have to do now, don't you?" _

For a moment, she looked extremely confused, but then she nodded. She lifted the red comb she had kept by her side practically the whole time, and waved it once.

Abruptly, the (hair?) on Inuyasha's sleeve tightened, and suddenly it felt like strands of the stuff was all over his body. He gave a start, but was too slow to pull them all away; the thing was… he could not see any of it.

"What the hell are you up to?" Inuyasha demanded. Yura's only response was laughter, but it was not prolonged this time; it was merely short and sweet, the kind that said you will die in a matter of seconds.

"This is idiocy!" the hanyou shrieked, grabbing at every strand he could find. "Even if I can't even see this damned stuff, that kind of power doesn't need to be had to drag you around!"

Yura grinned, and suddenly she was pulled up into the air, most likely by the hair. Though he could not see it now, there were huge, towering clumps of hair all around the forest; they had been there, silent, when he had fallen into this strange world, and only now were they beginning to stir. Yura was presently standing on a long, thick rope of it that extended from the bough of one giant oak tree to one about fifty feet in the opposite direction. And from there, she attacked.

Inuyasha frantically reached for any strand of the hair he could locate, and, gathering it all together in his clenched fist, pulled at it with all his might. He expected Yura's smile to flicker and then vanish just like a blown light bulb, but it did the complete opposite; it did flicker, but then it grew even wider, until her face looked almost grotesque from all the pulling she was doing to it; her teeth gleamed a bright white that he could see even from his position on the forest floor.

"Sorry to disappoint you, little doggy," Yura cooed, "but the hair _grows._"

Inuyasha did not care what that meant… he just wanted out of this stranglehold before he really _did _get strangled. If he died like this, by something he couldn't even _see, _then that he would regret forever.

When she seen that he wasn't going to respond, Yura flung out her hands, and even more strands burst from her body, positively covering the hapless hanyou on the ground.

Inuyasha stared in shock, at the place where he thought most likely the hair now was.

"What did you just do?" he yelled up to her, but she just continued to wave her hands toward him, and every time they made a complete arc close to where he stood, he felt the bonds on his body tighten further.

"Soon, little doggy," Yura said softly, "that hair that you most unfortunately cannot see will take your life."

--

"_No, Father! Stop!" _

_A little boy runs as fast as he can toward a man a few hundred feet in front of him. The man is standing in the middle of a large yard that surrounds a temple, and is being enveloped by a huge white light._

"_No!" the boy screams, and rushes over to the man, but is pulled back by an older man, with white hair and rosy cheeks, as if he had just been drinking a few moments before._

"_You can't save him, boy! Besides, if you go any closer to him, you'll also be drawn in!" the older monk says in a voice just barely over a whisper, directly into the young man's ears. And, indeed, a strong force seemed to be emanating from the man before them, like a tornado's wind, threatening to pull anything in that stepped close._

_The boy is wearing a blue robe, similar to the ones monks wear; he is an apprentice to the man holding him firmly back… while his father was being consumed before his very eyes._

"_No, Mushin-sama! He can still be saved, I know it!" The boy tears at Mushin's grip, but cannot get free; the old man may have been a drunk, but he knew how to use his strength when the time came._

_But he knew, even as he struggled, that it was too late to save him. _

_The young Miroku watches as, with one final burst of light, the crater where his father stood slowly materialized… all that was left of his dear father._

"_No!!" Miroku screams. "Father!!"_

_Mushin's efforts were successful, as he now finally let the boy go, who runs over to the spot where his father met his untimely demise._

_Once he arrives at the spot, he kneels down and weeps._

--

"Miroku-sama?" a voice called suddenly, and the monk woke up with a start, his father's name still screaming in his head, sweat pouring down his face and breathing as if he had just run a mile.

Once his heart had stopped pounding fifty miles an hour, he looked and noticed that Kagome-sama was looking him almost directly in the face; he gave a little yelp.

"Kagome-sama! You are all right?!" the monk exclaimed, his shock and fear from his vivid dream replaced by instant relief at seeing his friend okay again.

She nodded, and her face seemed to be definitely clear of any ills that had befallen it before, prior to and following her collapse from that "curse."

"I think I am all better, now, Miroku-sama," she said softly, eyes glistening with sudden tears of happiness; she didn't really know why she was getting so emotional, but there you are.

Miroku was overjoyed.

"I am so glad to hear that! Where is Shippou? I'll bet he's really glad to know you are all better, as well!"

Kagome-sama's smile flickered a little bit, but she hitched it back just as quickly as it had faltered.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to know what happened to me?" Strangely, she was no longer smiling, and it seemed as if his question about Shippou had ticked her off in some way.

"Shippou-chan went to gather some more wood for our fire," she continued, getting comfortable again (presumably from where she had rested earlier) on a bed of fresh green pine needles; Miroku had just realized that they were no longer in the meadow that they had stopped in before; they now seemed to be in the thick of a great forest. Insects chirped and buzzed all around them. The monk did a double-take.

"What in the world…" he began, mouth agape and staring at their surroundings. Just a little to their left was a small, pleasant brook, running clearly and smoothly toward a deeper part of the woods; it sparkled and gleamed from the sun shining through the tops of all kinds of trees; it was as if every single tree in the world was in this forest.

"…is this place…?" Miroku finished his question. "I do not remember being here before I fell asleep."

He looked at Kagome-sama, who was now staring, transfixed, it appeared, at the little brook next to them, churning sluggishly onward. If Miroku had been looking carefully into the water, then he would have seen, in the reflection, a most peculiar expression on the young priestess's face; an expression of pure joy… and crazed frenzy… an expression that never used to be on her face until now.

--

_Laughter._

"Who's there?" Sango cried out, her voice echoing through the long hallway before her; candles set in wooden brackets about ten feet apart glimmered on the walls.

_The laughter came again… an unending sound… reverberating throughout the long corridor, and through the demon slayer's mind._

The girl clutched her head and screamed… a piercing sound even louder than the voice she was now used to hearing; pain ripped through her head; it felt like someone was taking a sharp knife to her head and slowly splitting it open.

_If you want pain, I can give it to you!_ the voice admonished. _Here!_ There was a blast of sudden icy wind, a bright flash of white lightning-like light… and suddenly… before her… Sango seen all of her friends; they were merely shadows at first, but slowly they came into focus.

Slumped against a wall, an arrow piercing directly through her chest, was Kagome-chan. Her eyes were blank and they looked like they hadn't seen the sun in years; they looked almost milky, as if she were blind. A small trickle of blood came from her mouth and settled down her chin, to drip on to her clothing she always wore to school in her world.

Sango screamed louder, the pain worsening every second she glanced at her fallen friend.

But she couldn't help but see, and the force that drove her to do those horrible deeds made her stare at the opposite wall, where Inuyasha lay slumped in a similar fashion to Kagome-chan. His ears were all drooped, as a real dog's would when it is saddened, his golden eyes were shut, and his hair looked all tousled and uneven, the first time Sango had ever seen it that way; it was always so neat and cared for. Apart from his appearance, there appeared to be nothing physically wrong with him… that is… until she looked behind him. On the back of his head, shadowed at first because of the dimness in the hallway, despite the numerous candles glowing everywhere, was a gigantic gouge, most likely made by something that had smashed with all of its might into the back of his skull. The flesh was ripped open, blood seeping onto the floor, to reveal a part of his brain; Sango managed to hold back vomiting all over the ground when she seen that it was pulsating slightly, almost as if it were alive.

"NO!!" the taijiya shrieked, tearing at her hair and whipping out her katana without even realizing it. Before she knew it, she had it pointed at her own throat. She would have probably involuntarily grabbed Hiraikotsu, but that was lost to her for the time being.

Before this thing made her see any more of these gruesome images, Sango had to do something to stop it. What she was seeing had to be illusions, she knew, because they had appeared all at once, seemingly from nowhere… or had they been there the whole time, and she hadn't known it?

Her hand shook so badly that she almost dropped her sword, but she kept as tight a grip on it as she possibly could manage.

For a while, there was silence in the hallway, broken only by Sango's rapid breathing and the fierce pounding of her own heart. Then the strange voice spoke again, and it startled her so much that she almost dropped the katana again.

_Killing yourself won't help matters… you know that, don't you? You'll just go to hell, and be in an even worse situation than you are in right now! Plus… even if you do not kill yourself, do you think what you are now doing can stop me?_

That possibility had run through her mind already, and she was prepared to face the consequences if that was what it took to rid this horror from her.

_You are such a fool, _the voice mocked. _Perhaps I have not taught you enough of a lesson._

Without warning, as if an invisible hand were squeezing her sword arm tightly, Sango felt so much pressure being applied that she felt all of her arm go entirely numb. She gave a small whimper of pain and felt her clenched hand open to reveal the katana, which clanged loudly to the floor.

Instantly, the pressure lessened, and she could feel her arm again, but it wasn't over yet…

Not seen merely a minute ago, along with the deceased figures of Inuyasha and Kagome-chan appeared Shippou-chan, along with Kirara, whom Sango just realized was not with her.

She spun around, searching, but the long hallway extended seemingly for miles in both directions, door less, windowless, and candle-filled.

"Kirara?!" Sango shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth for resonance. There was no sound except for her breathing and heart, and the soft laughter of the voice.

_All of your friends are lost to you, Sango-chan… haven't you yet realized that?_

It couldn't be true; it couldn't!

"Do you mean to tell me that these dead replicas of my friends are real? That this isn't some sort of dream?"

The voice laughed again. _You got it._

"No!" Sango yelled, and the laughter ceased, leaving the same prior sounds again. "Do you think you can trick me like this? I have dealt with demons all of my life, practically, having grown up in a demon slaying village! Do you think I haven't seen this kind of illusion before?"

The voice was silent for a moment, until it said, _An illusion, is it?_

"Yes, an illusion!" Sango shot back. "Naraku has played games similar to this before! In his Illusory Death attack, my friends and I were all reduced to these same situations, seeing all those we care about dead, or seeing our greatest allies betray us… in other words, we were all given a glimpse into our own hearts, and to see the darkness within!"

The voice laughed again, and suddenly, before her, a figure stepped out of the shadows.

With a strange ringing sound, the flash of bright, white light appeared again, this time fifty times brighter than the last, and the girl shielded her eyes against the sudden glare.

"Very good, Sango. I daresay you are getting a little more clever." The voice was now different, and oddly familiar.

Sango gasped. Standing before her was none other than Naraku.

--

"Damn you, Yura!" Inuyasha yelled, struggling against the bonds of invisible hair that now had him caught.

"What is there to be damned?" Yura replied. "I am a demon, so of course I am damned! You are only saying that because you don't like to admit you're weak, and you also know that you are soon going to die!" She giggled, and the sound made the hanyou more infuriated than ever.

"I'm going to kill you!" he rasped, feeling the hair work its way up toward his neck, where it would surely end his life.

Yura continued to chortle.

"You use such empty threats, Inuyasha! I always knew they would someday be your undoing! And here I am correct, aren't I?"

He continued to struggle against the hair, but no matter how much he did, it did no good; it just kept getting tighter.

_This needs to be thought out rationally, here, or else I really am going to die! _he thought, and proceeded to try and remember.

He stopped struggling, went limp, and lowered his head; it might have been his imagination, but he thought that the hair had either slowed its course up his body, decreasing its constriction, or that it had stopped completely. Perhaps Yura thought he was now dead.

_Better to let her keep thinking that, _Inuyasha thought hurriedly. He started to think.

His mind seemed to have been emptied of all his previous memories the moment he landed in this strange world, and he was going to admit it was a strange world, because why would someone he had previously defeated come back again, this time different in some way?

He thought and thought, but it felt as if a huge layer of fog had descended over his brain, blocking out anything he attempted to recall.

"Are you dead yet, Inuyasha? I think you are, because of the way that you now look!" She laughed again, the sound hateful, and almost causing him to spring up and prove her newest prediction totally out of the water. Dead, was he?

Suddenly, he did remember something, but it was very faint…

_A girl is climbing on a giant tower of hair, covered with skulls. The puppeteer behind all of the length of hair, a young woman with a red bow in her hair, appears at the top and screams at the girl below her; the sound is filled with rage and hatred._

"_Stop pulling my hair!" she yells, using a bright red comb she held in one hand to raise the huge tower of hair, pulling the hapless young girl with it._

_Moments pass, and then…_

"_Inuyasha, that red skull! I think there's something in it!" the young girl states._

…

"What red skull?" Inuyasha said softly, but it was enough for Yura to hear, for she yelled with as much rage as she had in that memory just now.

"I knew you were not dead yet!" she screamed, flinging up the comb. Instantly, the hair tightened again, and Inuyasha knew that he had been correct, before. Yura had thought him dead, and thus had lowered her comb, decreasing the pressure the hair was having on him.

The time between the end of the memory and Yura's frantic shout gave Inuyasha all the time he needed to rip free of most of the hair and grab his sword, which he pulled out of its sheathe with a flourish.

With a huge flash of brilliance, Tessaiga emerged in its true form, looking more than ever like a giant fang, gleaming from the sun catching it above.

"NO!" Yura yelled, and frantically tried to engulf him in the hair again, but the hanyou was back in business, now… if not quite.

Aiming his unbelievable weapon at the girl floating (or so it seemed to him) in the air, he whipped it back, and yelled "_Kaze no Kizu!"_ Even though many of his memories were gone, that phrase still had some meaning to him, and he used it now.

Yura yelled in frustration, and… pulling the comb in close to her, all the hair that had bound Inuyasha left him and covered the girl, lifting her up into the air before the empowered strike could make contact with her; it instead blasted into a nearby hickory tree, smashing it to bits.

"Dammit!" Inuyasha cursed, watching the cocoon of hair make its escape (of course, he only saw Yura floating away, seeing as though he himself could not see the hair). "How did she escape? Was my aim not enough?"

Before he could try again, the girl was long gone.

­--

"Damn you, Naraku! What do you want? Was it you doing this all this time, or what?"

Her sworn enemy, dressed once again in his baboon pelt, laughed nefariously.

"Sango, do you really think I took the time to appear before you now for absolutely no reason at all? You should be thankful; I usually do not take so much time out of my busy schedule to meet personally with my enemies like this. I have something for you."

And to the complete surprise of Sango, Naraku reached behind him, and extracted Hiraikotsu from some hidden place where she could not see it.

"I know you are overjoyed to see your weapon again, Sango. I can tell by the expression on your face. You did really well just now. I am impressed. I have Hiraikotsu here with me. Would you like it back?"

--

TBC

Note: Just so you all know, the next chapter will be a little comedy segment, not really following the story or anything, but it will encompass the characters of Jaken, Rin, Sesshomaru and others. See you in Chapter 8!


	9. Chapter 8

**Note: Hey, all! This chapter is part of my story, but it does not follow the actual storyline, itself. Rather, it is more of a one-shot comedy scene between various characters I have not yet used in the plotline (ex. Sesshoumaru, Jaken, Rin and others). I was in a totally "chaotic" mood when I wrote this, so you all should probably get quite a laugh out of this one! It'll start out seemingly normal, but then… **

**I'll try to upload chapter 9 as soon as I can, which will continue the original story. What will happen?? Find out then! Oh, the tension! (chuckles insanely about tension)**

**Chapter 8 – Oh, Lord!**

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin called to the stoic demon standing a few feet away from her. He appeared to be involved with something a few feet away from _him. _When Rin looked a little closer, she saw that he was staring at a squirrel sitting on the ground, a nut clutched between its little buck teeth, furiously gnashing away at it.

"Oh, how cute!" Rin gushed, running over to the squirrel. With one motion, Sesshomaru stopped her.

"Rin, don't!" he commanded, his golden eyes flashing.

Rin stopped dead in her tracks, but kept her eyes fastened on the little creature, which just kept chowing away on the nut.

"What is it, my Lord?" the girl asked, confusion mirrored on her face; she received no answer… that is, not right away.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" another voice cried out.

The demon and the girl both glanced behind them, where their eyes perceived Jaken, running full-speed toward them, looking as if he were being chased by something.

"What is it, Jaken?" Sesshomaru asked, sounding bored.

"My Lord!" the kappa shrieked again. "Something pursues me! Hurry and dispatch it before it kills me!"

He watched as his master's eyes flashed, the same way they had when Rin had tried to run at the squirrel. He recoiled.

"I-I-I'm sorry, Master, I didn't mean to command you like that," Jaken stammered, backing away several steps from Sesshomaru before he got pounded.

"You are fine, Jaken, just don't do it again," the response was. Jaken's mouth fell agape. His Master _never _went without punishing him when he did something wrong, especially going to the level of ordering him to kill something that pursued a weak, little kappa like him!

This was so out of the ordinary that Jaken persisted, almost without realizing what he was saying.

"But… my Lord! You always punish me for things like this! Please go ahead and do it, then I'll feel totally fine again!"

He watched, but Sesshomaru still continued to watch the squirrel chewing incessantly on the nut; it was a wonder it had not escaped to a tree somewhere by now…

"That squirrel sure is acting strange," Rin said suddenly, still frozen in the same position she had been in when she was told to halt. "Why isn't it running away?"

"That squirrel is not just a squirrel," Sesshomaru replied, finally taking one step forward; from the time Rin had first called to him up until now, he had not moved an inch.

"What do you mean, Master?" Jaken asked, still unsure of what was going on; he looked behind him, but that which had chased him was somehow gone. He glanced back at Sesshomaru, who had finally looked away from the squirrel, to fix his eyes on the top of a huge oak tree behind Rin.

"What's wrong, my Lord?" Rin questioned, noticing where her Lord was now looking.

"It's nothing, Rin, you can move, now," he answered, walking away toward the tree. As soon as he stepped away from the squirrel, it hopped away, toward a tree at the far end of the forest.

A few moments passed…

"Damn! It got away again!"

The voice was so sudden and alarming that Jaken, Rin and Sesshomaru all started and glanced around.

Running toward them all was a young man with long black hair, tied up in a kind of bun on his head. He wore blue and white clothing, similar to what samurai warriors wear on the field of battle; yet from the way he looked and moved, it seemed as though he were just an ordinary guy.

"Who are you?" Sesshomaru asked the man, who halted in his tracks, similar to the way Rin had. Now that he was closer, Rin could see that, perched on top of the man's head, was what was unmistakably a monkey. It squeaked and gibbered when it seen the other people around him.

"Now, now, Hiyashimaru, don't be frightened, we've met people before, haven't we?" The monkey just continued to squawk.

"Please shut that monkey up," Sesshomaru said, surprising the hell out of Rin. Her Master _never _said "please" when asking someone to do something, if he ever did. What was with him, today?

"Master, what is wrong with you today?" Rin inquired, staring her Lord hard in the eyes. He gave no response, yet another strange action on his part.

"Yes, my Lord, what is wrong?" Jaken also asked. He, too, was ignored.

There was silence, for a while, broken only by Hiyashimaru's chattering.

Then, suddenly…

_BBBVVVVVVVVV!!_

With a noise like a gunshot, a sound that was clearly a fart blasted through the forest, causing Rin, Jaken, the boy and his monkey to jump; Sesshomaru gave no sign that he had heard a thing; he just kept staring up at the tree.

"What in the hell was _that_?" the boy declared, eyes roving around him.

"Rin did it!" Jaken accused, pointing at the girl; she flushed.

"It most certainly was not me!" she defended, rising up to her full short height.

"Then it was the new guy!" Jaken continued, pointing now at the boy. Now one hand was in Rin's direction and the other was in the new guy's direction. He also took his stand.

"If you are accusing _me, _you little imp, then I will have to wring your neck right now!" The monkey on his head gave a sound as if to agree with his threat.

"Then who was it?" Jaken asked, more to himself than the others. He gasped.

So that was why his Master was acting so strangely, today! His stomach must have been feeling pretty messed up!

"Wasn't it, my Lord?" he spoke up. The demon turned in his direction, frustration showing on every line of his face, which was turning a light shade of red.

"It was you, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin said, shocked. Her answer was a very small nod; Sesshomaru grinned peevishly.

"I don't believe it!" Jaken gasped again.

"What's wrong, Jaken?" Sesshomaru asked. "Just because there's something wrong with you, doesn't mean there has to be nothing wrong with me!"

Jaken started to retort, but then he asked, "What do you mean, there's something wrong with me?"

Sesshomaru smiled.

"I mean, Jaken, that you are a virgin."

There was silence for a long time, then.

"WHAAAATTT?" Jaken yelled. "What in the hell do you mean by that?"

"Oh, come on, Jaken," Rin now said, now smiling as well. "We all heard you talk in your sleep, saying how you always wanted to get laid, but you never got the chance. Admit it!"

Jaken was outraged.

"You all-!" was all he could manage.

"VIRGIN, VIRGIN, VIRGIN!" Sesshomaru and Rin chanted. The words were like daggers to the kappa's ears.

"NOOOO!!!" he screamed.

He closed his eyes, dropped the Staff of Heads, and crouched on the ground, covering his head with his hands.

"This is a dream!" he shouted.

"Did you hear that?" Rin asked Sesshomaru; he leaned in to listen. "He just said that he wants to get laid by a really fat tanuki!"

"NOOOOO!!!" Jaken yelled again. "You lie!"

Rin and Sesshomaru continued to chant over and over again.

Suddenly…

He woke up.

"Wow! What a nightmare!" he exclaimed. "Now, where am I?"

He looked around and seen that he was still in the same forest where he, Rin and Lord Sesshomaru had stopped for the night to rest; it was now daytime, the same time period it had been in his dream… was it a dream, though?

"Hi, Lord Jaken!"

The sudden cry was so startling that the kappa screamed out in fear and looked wildly around the area. Rin was sitting a little to his left, leaning against a large boulder.

"Oh, it's just you," Jaken said simply, trying to hide the note of contempt from his tone; she seemed to have understood, regardless.

"Why are you being so mean to me?" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm going to tell Lord Sesshomaru on you!"

Jaken's eyes filled with fear, but he dismissed her comment.

"Ha! You don't scare me, child! If you are bribing me with Lord Sesshomaru's wrath, then I have no use for you! I'll go to him myself!

"Lord Jaken… wait one moment!" Rin called, before he could even get up.

He turned his head toward her very slowly.

"What is it?" he snapped, gripping the Staff of Heads very tightly, so tightly that his hands hurt from the strain it put on them.

"I heard you mumbling in your sleep just now," Rin responded, her face lighting up with sudden amusement; he thought he knew what she was about to say. And sure enough…

"I heard you mumbling something about you being a virgin!" she giggled.

Jaken's mouth fell agape, just like in his dream. But this was real! It had to be!

"_Oh, Lord Jaken!"_ a voice nearby called. Jaken turned his head as quickly from the girl as humanly (or kappaly) possible… and screamed again.

A very large and fat tanuki with black rings around its eyes had ambled over to their little campsite; Lord Sesshomaru was still missing, presumably hunting. Jaken backed away several steps. But the tanuki came closer.

"I know you want to get laid with me!" it called. It batted what eyelashes it had, and whipped its short little raccoon tail to and fro.

"NO!" Jaken shouted. "Not my dream come true!"

But that apparently was the wrong thing to say; the tanuki's face lit up with excitement.

"Oh, yes! I knew you wanted me!" it cried blissfully.

Jaken screamed again.

"No, get away from me!"

"Stop!"

"But you said you wanted me, didn't you?"

"I said nothing of the sort!"

"You said you were a virgin!"

"I DID NOT!!"

"Come here, darling!"

"NOOOOOO!!!"

--

End

Well, that was funny, wasn't it?

I might do another funny little skit later on in the story, but I thought I'd throw that one out to you!

Chapter 9 continues the story! See you there!


	10. Chapter 9

Note: I understand that the last chapter was totally random on my part, but believe me… you haven't yet seen the extent of my psychoticness! (is that even a word…?)

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying my fic so far!

Also note: A big thanks to RoseCrystal for all of her great reviews! If it weren't for her enthusiastic support, I probably would not feel inclined to update much.

So, without further ado, let the story continue!

_**Chapter 9 – Strange Things Get Stranger**_

"What did you say?" Sango asked, openmouthed, to the demon in front of her. Although, from all of her experiences as a demon slayer, she felt no _youki _(demonic aura) within him, so it was clearly a puppet.

Naraku laughed softly from behind the mask. As usual, just the lower half of his face was shown.

"Interesting… Sango, you are surprisingly dull."

Her body shook with fury; in one motion, she had reached down and picked up the katana from the floor, where it glimmered, catching the light of the candles shining on the walls.

"What do you mean, 'surprisingly dull?' I am cleverer than you imagine I am… not to mention all of my friends! Do you think what you are planning has had any effect on any of us? Because it hasn't…"

She trailed off. Both of them were silent for a few seconds, until…

"Sango… I'm sorry to say to you that you are sadly mistaken. I highly doubt any of you are immune to my spell… especially that Inuyasha…"

This time, _he_ trailed off.

For just a moment, Sango flashed back to the vision she had of Inuyasha, slumped on the floor, the back of his head blasted open, and his brain showing through…

_No! _she scolded herself. _That won't happen to him, as long as I'm around!_ She set her mind straight, and stared down her enemy.

"Go on," Sango urged, knowing even now that he would not continue. She could not help but grin a little, however. Naraku's pride was nearly always his weakness; because he was so certain that Sango and her friends were beyond help's reach, he had almost let slip something about Inuyasha.

"What about Inuyasha? Tell me, or I will destroy your pathetic _kugutsu _(puppet)!"

She saw his mouth curve upward in a smile.

"Oh? You are certain that I am just a lowly demon puppet, are you? Do not forget where you are, Sango. Anything can occur here."

As a matter of fact, Sango did not know where she was.

"How did I get here?" she asked, more to herself than to Naraku. He laughed again.

"This proves it. You are dull," he remarked. "Not even knowing where you stand is pretty amusing, I'd say… hold it."

Sango had just been about to swing the katana in his direction. Her eyes were overlarge and shining with anger. Now more than ever, she wanted him dead. Putting her and probably all of the rest of her friends through this trap of his, and then practically mocking her right now was more than she could stand. She hurried forward, sword flashing.

"I'm sick of you! I want you dead!" she screamed.

When she was mere inches away from him, he vanished, just like that, in a wisp of miasma.

"What…?" she cried, brandishing the katana at the very last second, so that she careened into a wall, bouncing backward, landing hard on her side and hearing her weapon clang to the stone floor once again.

She winced in pain, rubbing her thigh and waist, where she had landed, strangely on both at once. Behind her, next to the opposite wall, she heard Naraku reappear; the returning miasma lingering near her signified that as well.

"I see, Sango. Since you are angered to the point of murder, then I guess I will explain at least where you are… but first… would you like your weapon returned to you?"

--

"Kagome-sama? Are you all right?" Miroku asked suddenly of the young miko; she started and turned around, her back to the stream.

"Oh, yes… I am all right, Miroku-sama… I was just dazed, that's all." As she said it, her eyes grew heavy, almost closed, and she nearly fell to the ground, if Miroku's quick actions had not spared her.

"Kagome-sama…" he started, but her eyes snapped fully open again, and she gently pushed him away, getting to her feet once again.

"Really, Miroku-sama… I'm okay."

But something in the way she said that did not make the monk feel so sure.

"You need to lie down," he urged her, anxious that she do so in order to regain all of her strength, which he knew she did not have right at the moment.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Miroku-sama… I told you… I'm okay." Her tone of voice suggested the subject was now closed, but the lecher had not seen this type of behavior from his friend before, and he was worried about it.

"Kagome-sama… what is wrong with you? You never refuse help when it is given to you…" His voice trailed off as quick as the eyes can blink; he knew what was going on… why didn't he see it before?

"You're not Kagome-sama!" he yelled, shoving the imposter away as hard as he could manage, with the last of _his _waning strength.

The girl gave a startled cry and toppled to the earth yet again; this time, she did not move.

Breathing hard and fast, Miroku cautiously walked over to the fallen girl, and inspected her closely. At first glance, she appeared to be totally normal, apart from the strange way she had been behaving a few seconds ago. But upon closer inspection, he noticed that, on the nape of her neck, almost hidden underneath the collar of her uniform, there was a weirdly-shaped cut, almost like an X. It looked like she had been branded with something… what was going on here? Everything was fine from the moment they were all together in that little forest clearing, sitting back against the trees, relaxing, until Kagome-sama had sensed the feeling of the Sacred Jewel, and Sango had thought it was her brother, Kohaku… then all hell broke loose after that.

What happened between Sango and Naraku inside that barrier, anyway? Whatever else was done, he knew he had to make sure, at least of that, what had happened.

--

"Naraku!" Sango yelled, filled with frustration. "What in the hell are you saying?" All of his riddles and the events that had been laid at her and her friends' feet up until this moment was all too much; the purple barrier, her and Naraku within it, conversing strange things, Inuyasha, Houshi-sama, Kagome-chan arriving with Shippou, the strange thing that had happened to Kagome-chan, and then the blacking out of all her thoughts, so that only the weird, compelling voice had remained, urging her every move, almost killing Inuyasha, and nearly doing away with herself. What in the world was going on?

Naraku laughed softly.

"Sango, you still do not seem to understand your situation, here… and if I am not mistaken once again, you are in the utmost of depression and confusion… am I not correct?" The demon slayer was silent. Without waiting for her to respond, Naraku, seized the mask on his baboon pelt, and pulled it free, revealing his face… the red eyes, not to mention the light-blue eyeliner (ugh!). He then continued. And this time, Sango could see whether he was really smiling or not… mostly.

"I figure, Sango, if we are to make any connection at all, and have a nice, pleasant conversation, we must know what the other looks like, correct?" His words were twisted, like always… he knew full well she knew what he looked like.

"All you are doing is speaking in riddles, demon," Sango finally said, speaking the words carefully, choosing them with caution; she did not want anything out of the ordinary to happen further (like she could ever avoid having that happen, anyway!). "If you are going to talk to me, and get anywhere with this whole business, you'd better talk straight to me, or else I really will do you in!" Sango bent and quickly snatched up her katana, which was still on the floor from when she had attacked Naraku earlier; or so she thought she had snatched it up. She blinked in surprise, wondering where it was. She got her answer the moment he spoke again, and she looked up.

"Your senses are failing you badly, it seems," he said, tossing her weapon from one hand to the other, as if taunting her with it. How had he gotten it off of the floor so quickly like that? Especially when she had her eyes on him the whole time he had been talking, and the sword was on the floor. "Usually, you detect anything I am about to do… wait a minute, though… could it be you cannot focus because you don't have your weapon?" He grinned devilishly, red eyes glinting. Sango stared at him, openmouthed. Could that really be the reason she had felt so strange recently… so depressed, misled and altogether violent? It was true that the demon slayer had her true fighting spirit when her weapon was in her possession, but events like this never happened as a direct result… so, why now? She suddenly realized something, and it was something she should have realized a long time ago.

"Where in the hell am I?" she asked. She looked around her more carefully, but saw nothing other than what she had glimpsed before; the long hallway that seemed to go on straight ahead forever, the wooden doors, the candles glimmering on sconces every few feet or so, the absence of any windows… wait a second… there weren't any doors before, were there?

Naraku smiled, reading her mind, knowing what it was she now knew.

_This girl progresses quickly, _he thought. _She may be the only one that will get out of this alive, compared to those others… they may well die after all this time. _He was satisfied, if even one were to die; it would make his quest for the remaining jewel shards all that easier. He sighed; it couldn't hurt to let the foolish girl know where she at least was; he didn't know his curse had been _that _effective; maybe he was lucky, for once.

"Well, Sango, since your eyes reveal that you indeed have no idea where you stand, I will tell you… then, I must be on my way…" His words trailed away; the demon slayer was pointing her katana at him, a truly threatening look in her eyes, one that made even him, Naraku, shocked for even a second. He scolded himself for being even one second afraid of this girl, but he passed it away just the same.

"You are not leaving until you hand me my weapon, Hiraikotsu, return Kirara to me, show me where Inuyasha, houshi-sama, Kagome-chan and Shippou-chan are. Only then will I let you leave… you bastard," she added, almost as an afterthought; the statement made Naraku grin wider. She truly was a fool if she thought she could threaten him like this; he, after all, held her brother's heart in his hands (though maybe not as literally as Kagura's heart). Either way, it served him well.

"My, my, dear Sango… you seem to have become much more impolite since our last encounter… inside that barrier. Perhaps some events that have since come and gone have unhinged you just a little?" He made it more a statement of fact, rather than a question, and that only served to infuriate Sango more.

"Bastard! Just do as I tell you!" She was almost in tears, though she did not really know why. Everything and everyone she cared about was crumbling into pieces around her, and she was powerless to stop any of it from happening. Her enemy only continued to smile.

_I guess I will let her have what she wants, _he thought, knowing that what he was about to do may very well crack the barrier around Sango's sanity further, and that she may rush him again; if she did, she would regret it, this time.

The taijiya was still pointing her sword at Naraku, but as she looked at him, he appeared to fade away from her sight; it was as if he were merely a projection, cast by a light that contained a person or thing meant to deceive; he seemed blurred around the edges. Sango squinted, yet could not seem to find what the matter with her vision was; was it her vision?

When she next blinked, and looked again, Naraku had gone.

****


	11. Chapter 10

**Note: Sorry for the lack of updates on my part, but I intend for this chapter to be a pivotal point (not to mention long…) in my story. I can guarantee that when you finish reading this part, you will not only be more confused (which you will be, but for a good reason) but you will also probably feel that you kind of have a better idea of what is going on. I'm not going to give too much away here, however! Just read it, though, you'll see what I mean…**

**Go on, read…**

**Read!**

**Read…!**

**(shakes fist)**

**One more thing: don't forget to review! Awesome writers love awesome feedback!**

**_Chapter 10 – Hanyou in Hell_**

Sango heard Naraku's laughter, but as she looked around for him, her eyes did not pick him out.

"Come out, you coward!" she called, holding her katana in front of her, wavering with it slightly, as if she were a little tipsy. She was in this particular stance because who knew when he was going to suddenly strike?

"A coward, am I?" his voice echoed throughout the hallway, with its endless supply of candles and gloom. He chuckled some more. "If I am not mistaken, Sango, you are the one who is acting cowardly, standing there with that terrified look in your eyes, holding your weapon before you like so… I'm betting that you just can't wait to get Hiraikotsu back in your hands, so that you can be relieved of all of your current agony and suffering… am I not correct?"

Of course, he was. But she did not bother to enunciate that fact. Instead, she simply waved her sword around threateningly.

"I told you to come out, asshole!" she yelled, seemingly to empty air; but she could feel, even though she could not see, his presence, somewhere nearby. She lunged around, ready to strike behind her, but nothing appeared; in fact, what was behind her was no different than what was in front of her… empty hallway, going straight on until the eyes could no longer discern how long it really was… endless, in a word. The candles continued to flicker in their little holdings on the walls, and because it was now so quiet, apart from the slight breathing of the slayer, she could hear the slight popping they made as they burned.

She backed up a few steps, eyes searching the area, but still finding nothing. Naraku's laughter had died away, and it was now unnaturally eerie in the open space where she stood.

A few moments passed. And then…

"You said you were going to tell me where I was," she said suddenly, breaking the unnerving, oppressive silence; it was now starting to bug her.

Silence ensued again, but this time, only for a moment.

"Sango, you should know, by now, where you are… I am actually surprised that I even asked if you wanted to know where you stood."

The girl remained silent.

"Very well… I gather you are still confused… be that as it may." There was no annoyance in his voice; in fact, there hadn't been since this all began… at least, not that she could recall. He was always so patient, so confident, and so cool in his way of doing things that he was always, 100 sure that nothing could stop him. But, as mentioned before, that was almost always his downfall; too much pride is a bad thing… just look at Julius Caesar! (okay, off topic now).

"Before I tell you, Sango, let me show you something." That little statement was enough to get Sango moving, alert again, for any sign of something that might suddenly pop out.

_Fwing!_

With a little whizzing sound, something flashed in the air about five feet away. Instinctively, Sango ducked, barely avoiding what looked to be a small dagger, flying through the air, without any support at all.

She heard it ring down the hallway behind her, where it then disappeared into silence, as heavy as what had been before.

"What are you trying to pull?" she asked angrily, still in the down position, face beet-red, hair starting to come untangled from the ribbon she held it up with.

"Just seeing if you were paying attention, dear girl," Naraku said softly, still in the same calm tone.

"Whatever," Sango replied, straightening up again. "Now just tell me what you will so that I can get out of here and save my friends."

Unsurprisingly, Naraku laughed again.

"_Save _them? You wish to save your friends, when you do not even know they still live or not?"

For the first time, a trace of doubt crept into her mind. Maybe something _did _happen to them… if it did, it was all her fault; it had been her choice back then to leave the safety of her companions, ride Kirara and meet the source of the Shikon fragment, whose owner she had believed to be Kohaku. Her eyes welled up with tears.

_Kohaku, _she thought hopelessly, _when will you ever find peace through your actions. When will you ever be free of that demon, Naraku?_

"Sango," Naraku suddenly said, breaking into her mind, erasing the mental picture of her brother, and making her stiffen once again. "You are, simply enough, within one of my illusions." He said it so simply and plainly that it was as if it had been blatantly obvious from the start. But, of course this had been an illusion, though! The dead bodies of all of her friends, when she knew very well they were still alive and well (for the most part) were certainly not real. But then… what in this little situation _was _real? How did she even get here, first of all?

"You got here," the reply was, clearly from an intrusion into her thoughts, "by seduction." That served to confuse the girl even more. Seduction? What the hell was he rambling on about now? She waited for his response, which came soon enough.

"You, Sango, are the only one to pass the individual tests I have set for you and your friends… tests that make you think about your actions, your past, future and whatever else you must ponder… I have tested you on all of those accounts. Take the illusions, for example, of the bodies of your friends. You knew them to be fake, of course, because they appeared from seemingly nowhere, did they not? But, did you not think that they could have been there the whole time, just waiting for the right time to be revealed to your unbelieving eyes? Now that you know they are obviously not real, considering that they are now gone, disappeared into that realm we call 'the vanished,' the term used to describe things that are no longer upon this earth.

"Also, take note of where you now are, Sango. You believed this to be a real place, when you suddenly awoke here, did you not? Well, as a matter of fact, it is a real place… or, to be more direct, _was_ a real place. It has since fallen into disuse and ruin, and I thought I would liven it back up to how it used to be, in the form of an illusion. This long hallway, which seems to your eyes to go on forever, is called the 'Corridor of Perplexity', which also means 'confusion.' This place used to exist in the town of Kudon, a hidden village deep in Japan (note from the author: if I butcher names of Japanese cities, pending I do come up with names, please either correct me or know that I am merely making them up.).

"And, as I am sure you are still wondering, about the term 'seduction' I gave to you a few moments ago? Ah, yes. A wonderful cohort of mine was steadily guiding you onward, speaking into your mind, a being called the Mind Wraith. I won't go into it here, but you were riding on Kirara, your _neko youkai (cat demon), _when you detected something upon the ground. The voice lured you… if you thought I did, you are mistaken."

Sango stared off into space, openmouthed, shocked by the stunning revelations of what she had just heard.

_What voice is he talking about? And just what is this Mind Wraith?_

She knew, even as she pondered them, that these questions would take a while to answer.

­--

"_Dammit!_"

The word was a cry that echoed throughout the cavernous forest that the hanyou called Inuyasha found himself in.

How in the hell did he get here? He still did not know. And what had he been doing before he got here? He didn't know that, either. All he could seem to recall was that he had been standing in a great clearing where debris was flying all around him. Then the whole world had went black… oh… there had also been the sensation of moving around in a great arc very fast… as if he had been spinning in or on something.

But the question was what it was.

"Shit…" he muttered, presently leaning against a large oak tree, which seemed unnaturally tall to him, for some reason; in fact, all of the trees in this strange forest seemed a little out of place… as if they did not belong. "I can't believe that damned Yura got away…"

It had been about half an hour since the girl with the hair had managed to escape, (afraid?) driven away by the power of his mysterious sword. He, even now, was still marveling at it, examining its long blade when it was pulled free of its sheathe… the way it transformed from a rusted piece of shit to a gleaming, gigantic fang-like weapon… but how could that be?

He corrected himself about a second later.

Magic, of course… but of what sort was it? He could, very faintly, remember, as if it had occurred a hundred years ago, magic, of some sort…

"_What are you doing, fool?! Hurry up and shoot it!" a boy cries up to a girl riding on his back. The girl looks sternly at him and replies, "Hey, don't yell at me like that! I'm not exactly a marksman, you know! But still… Kikyou, give me what power you may have possessed to help us through this!"_

_The girl readies a bow she is carrying, aims it up at a strange black bird that is flapping its wings, and nocks an arrow, preparing to fire._

"_Hurry up, girl!" the boy yells impatiently, and the girl fires an arrow up at the (crow?) black bird… but misses._

_--_

"_Hey, can I borrow your bow?" the girl asks a man who is standing with a large group of people, who in turn were staring up at the sky, where a large black bird was taking flight._

_The man did not reply._

"_Hey, listen to me!" the girl snaps, and the man starts and turns toward her. "Can I borrow your bow?" she repeats._

"_Sure," the man replies, and hands her one… it's a little worn, but it would have to do. One arrow was all she would need for this…_

_About a hundred yards away, across a river, the boy with the white hair screams at the girl. "What are you doing, stupid?! Get the Jewel, idiot, the Jewel!" The girl ignores him, and instead pulls the crow's foot off a boy, where it had attacked him earlier…_

Come on, I only have one chance to do this right, _the girl prays. She attaches the foot of the crow to her single arrow with a piece of ribbon she borrowed from another villager and aims the bow at the crow, who was steadily vanishing into the sun. _

"_Hurry!" the boy shouts, cupping his hands over his mouth for resonance. If the girl heard him, she gave no sign. Instead, she readied her bow. _

"_What's she doing with that bow?!" the boy asks himself in disbelief. "My ass she's gonna shoot it!"_

_But, on this day, the girl named Kagome shocked everyone in that village._

_With a sound like a _twang! _the arrow flew with lightning speed, from the bow string, into the sky, somehow angling up into the air toward the crow, who was still far away, and gaining the advantage of escape. _

Yes! Do it! _the girl prays, as the arrow launched itself at the bird._

_With his eyes, the boy could determine that the arrow had what appeared to be the foot of the crow attached to it. He gasped, in spite of himself._

I don't believe it! She's shooting the foot! _he thought, amazed._

The foot can't help but be drawn by the power of the Jewel, which almost guarantees it'll reach its mark! _the girl thinks, knowing that her feeling was right… and it was._

_With a blinding flash, the arrow reached the crow with the speed and accuracy of an experienced archer, and with just as much speed and force, exploded into the body, causing it to explode into numerous fleshy pieces, but this time… the pieces did not come back together. _

_Within the crow, the Jewel that it had digested to make it stronger began to crack visibly into many smaller pieces… and then…_

_With another blinding flash of light, this one even more powerful than before, the scattered shards of the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls separated and flew in opposite directions…_

--

_What the hell was that_? Inuyasha thought dazedly. He had practically fallen asleep against the huge oak, and did not realize, until this moment, that he had slid down its rough, thick bark to the ground below, where he lay curled up like a dog. He quickly sat up.

_That dream… it seemed so real! Was it a dream, though? It was more like a memory…_

Then, it occurred to him that the girl who had been in the dream had been in another of his (visions) dreams… the one he had utilized to help himself defeat Yura… the one where there had been a huge tower of hair, covered with skulls, and the girl (what was her name?) had been climbing across the hair, toward a strange red skull.

"_That skull, Inuyasha! There is something in it!" _Those had been her words… that girl's words… and she had said a name… Inuyasha? Was that his name? If Yura had said it, then he did not remember. In fact, everything that had happened to him in this space of just mere (minutes) hours was slowly losing context in his mind; it was like trying to keep water cupped in your hand… the details were leaving him as fast as he could hold on to them.

"Who am I, really?" the boy thought, and suddenly his mind went utterably blank, and he lay down on the ground to sleep.

--

"Heh… very interesting."

Far away, in their mountainside cave, Naraku was watching Inuyasha's progress through Kanna's mirror.

"Very good, Kanna… it would appear that Inuyasha is also persistent… my plan is falling apart already, is it not? Well, I think that one more dose of 'magic' is in order… to make them truly forget who they are… especially that Inuyasha."

On the opposite side of the cave, Kagura was still wondering what was going on.

_What is Naraku thinking? _she wondered, staring at a place on the wall for no particular reason; it was mainly to refrain from looking at either Naraku or Hakudoushi, who was presently floating in his barrier next to Naraku, apparently asleep. Not too far away, Kohaku sat dismally against another part of the same wall, head down between his legs. He appeared to be sleeping, but Kagura was not so sure. As far as the two of them knew, Kagura was the only one that knew Kohaku had his mind returned to him. For the moment, it appeared Naraku did not suspect. But, eventually, he probably would… for he would need Kohaku's shard of the Jewel to make it whole again. But why was he wasting his time, when he could he searching for the remaining shards? Why was he playing this game with his most hated enemies, if he could just pick them off easily one by one, instead of slowly torturing them?

Kagura still did not know, and probably never would know, her master's true motives.

_My master! _she scoffed silently. _If I had my way, I would make sure he or no one else would be my _master!

With his back to her, Naraku suddenly said, "Kagura, if you think anything like that again, I will have to kill you."

Kagura froze. How long had he been reading her mind? He must have just intruded, because she did not feel any feeling until now…

"I'm sorry," she admonished, keeping her eyes on the wall, which were shining with hate and malice.

Back still facing her, Naraku smirked. He peered into Kanna's mirror again, controlling his puppet as he did so. It was so easy to play with Sango… so incredibly easy. Causing her to believe that she had already passed his little test was nearly laughable. In fact… she hardly has scratched the surface of what would eventually come.

Naraku began to laugh softly, using the puppet to pull at Sango's restraints further, while now, all the while, his eyes were settled on something which was resting in the far corner of the cave…

He continued to laugh as he played with the demon slayer's mind, taunting her with assurances of giving her weapon back to her, when it was in fact with him here… in the cave.

--

Miroku was confused.

That was not really all that shocking, however… he had been in a sort of daze ever since Kagome-sama had done that weird action by the stream… had been tense, and seemingly not that awake.

The monk sighed.

Everything was spiraling out of control very fast, and he did not know how to stop it from becoming something that could not be reversed.

"Hoy, Miroku…" someone said, almost directly into his ear. He jumped, startled.

It was Shippou.

"Hoy," the little fox-tyke said again, "are you okay?"

Silence between them for a moment.

"I'm okay, Shippou… you don't need to worry about me." But in his mind, he was feeling that something was very wrong with Kagome-sama… something he could not quite put his finger on… but it was definitely something.

"I think you're lying, Miroku," Shippou pressed, leaning up against the monk, as if in fear; perhaps he sensed something different with Kagome-sama, as well.

Leaning over, so he would not be heard by anyone but the boy, Miroku whispered, "I think there's something up with Kagome-sama… don't you feel it?" When he finished asking his question, his eyes moved over to the stream, where the girl in question was presently washing her arms, sleeves of her uniform rolled up.

_Too bad, _Miroku thought suddenly, dismally. _Too bad her ass is not as fun as Sango's to look at… and…_ He cut himself off right there, giggling softly to himself. Shippou's face broke into a smile, evidently pleased that the monk was in a better mood. He laughed in spite of himself.

"That's the spirit, Miroku!" Shippou exclaimed, bounding away from the lecher and landing on a nearby fallen tree, which looked as if it had recently toppled to the earth.

Miroku was staring at him, still grinning, when he realized that the young miko was standing right behind him. He gave an involuntary leap of shock.

"Kagome-sama!" he cried, seriously taken aback by her sudden appearance; she had appeared so suddenly… the last time he seen her, she had been over by the water… had she even been there at all…?

"What's wrong, Miroku-sama?" she asked, looking pretty much normal… at least as normal as her type could go. In other words, he corrected himself, she was as normal as Kagome-sama could be… she was… oh screw it! He didn't know how to describe her!

"You look as if you just seen a ghost, you silly monk," she continued, smiling at him; even though he did not want to… he wanted to look away, but her gaze held his gaze.

"It's just that I'm really tired, that's all," Miroku lied quickly… well, it was a half-lie, if there can even be such a thing… he _was _tired. But his other emotion, the one that was most yearning to escape him and render him a little _chaotic_, for lack of a better word, barely remained contained.

Kagome-sama's eyes narrowed slightly, as if she knew he was not telling the truth… but then her face took on its usual gait once more.

"Well, Miroku-sama," she started, running a hand distractedly through her long black hair, "I just wanted you and Shippou-chan, if he's able, to know that I sense the presence of the Sacred Jewel… and it's not far away." She said that with such calm and without any trace of panic, excitement or anything related to it at all that the monk just stared at her, unbelieving.

"Are you sure you are okay to move, Kagome-sama?" he asked, uncertain as to what her motives were… if she indeed had any, that is. She had mentioned her sensing the Jewel so casually; it was as if they were simply discussing the weather, which promised to be a good day, not a cloud in sight… no worries. Miroku had nothing but worries!

"Where is it? Can you tell?" he demanded of her. She sat, staring at him for a few moments, before she replied.

"It's about a mile or so to the north… it feels like the whole Jewel, not just a single shard… or as whole as it is right now… Naraku has nearly the whole thing."

Miroku stared at her anew. Naraku? Why was he suddenly so interested in him and his friends? What is exactly going on here?

"Are you sure it's Naraku?" he urged, grabbing her by the front of her uniform almost without thought, disregarding the way her eyes widened in shock. "If it is… if you are sure… then we must be off at once."

She nodded… seemingly certain. And without another word on the matter, she got up and walked away from him.

She only went a short distance, where she knelt behind a huge elm tree, disappeared for a few seconds, and then emerged, pulling behind her one of her "bicycle" contraptions.

After getting on and steadying herself, she turned to him.

"Miroku-sama… what are you doing? It's time to be off!" And without another word (again), she started to pedal away.

The monk watched her for a while, even after she was out of sight. He was confused as hell. Before all this had happened, before all hell had broken loose and half of their company scattered, they had all been running (with the exception of Sango, who was flying on Kirara) toward where Kagome-sama had first sensed the presence of the Jewel shard… and she was riding on Inuyasha's back.

After some watching of this, Miroku had asked her where her bicycle contraption was… the one she always brought over from her world on the other side of the Bone-Eater's Well… she had said that she left it in her world, and had none others around here in this era… something about one being broken.

Then what in the world did he just see now?

Where did this other bicycle come from?

--

_Inuyasha._

The voice was so sudden and alarming that he leapt up from the ground, almost drawing his sword, having been woken from a very light doze.

_Inuyasha… what are you doing? You know what you have to do, so go ahead and do it!_

The voice was not familiar to him, although he could sense that it was a girl's voice.

"Who is it?" he called, to the forest surrounding him.

No reply.

He tried again.

"Hey, is anyone there?"

Still no reply.

He began to think he was losing it… that he was hearing things… but he was sure he heard a voice.

Then, when a few minutes passed, and it was so quiet he could hear a cricket chirp in the distance, it came again.

_Wake up, stupid! What are you doing, laying on the ground like that? You have a job to do, so go ahead and get it done!_

He was starting to get angry.

"Hey! Who the hell are you to order me around like this?! I don't even know where I am!" He waited, but there was no immediate response.

When he did hear it again, it sounded faint, as if its owner were getting farther away.

_Inuyasha… I'm so frightened… please help me, Inuyasha! If you don't, we'll all die!_

Now he was confused.

"Who is that? Identify yourself now!" His ears perked up for a reaction to his demand, but there was none. When it came again a minute later, the voice was angry again.

_Hey, I told you to get your ass moving! Now do it! Do I have to tell you twice?! Wait, I already did… dammit!_

Suddenly, the voice sounded clearer, as if he had been hearing it from his head, and it now was actually in the world of the living, around him, in this strange forest. He looked around, saw nothing, and yelled, "If you're here, come out! Don't make me force you to!" He hoped his threat would amount to something, but it did not.

"Draw your sword, Inuyasha."

Now the voice sounded like it was directly behind him; he jumped a mile.

He whirled around.

And gasped.

--

"Who is this, Naraku?" Hakudoushi asked, floating disdainfully inside his barrier, staring at the cave ceiling.

Staring through Kanna's mirror, which had now showed him Inuyasha's progress, Naraku wondered, also, who this newcomer was.

He had been distracted from Sango, to be lured by this… but what was it?

"I don't know, Hakudoushi," he answered, "but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough…"

He chuckled.

--

"Who are you?" Inuyasha asked, hand still resting on the scabbard that held his sword.

The girl, who was now standing behind him, gave a wide smile, showing off a neat row of white, even teeth.

"I'm Ibeka Yurianna," she replied, "but you can call me Yuri. I live here."

--

TBC


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. There… can't get any simpler than that, eh? By the way, Rumiko Takahashi rules for making such an incredible, in depth story… no one could have pulled off what she has any more than she has (isn't that awkward…) anyway clears throat congrats Takahashi-san!**

**Note: This is the first chapter I have posted away from before my damned school blocked that website, I was happily updating from there, as "ChaoticYoukai667" (look how much _that _name has changed…!) To do the honor of letting my story be known and read, I have decided to keep uploading my fic… here on FicWad. I hope you all enjoy it!**

**Another Note: ….. forgets what he was going to say**

**Another Note: now remembers Let it continue!**

**_Chapter 11 – Yuri_**

**She was born into an average working family, Yuri was. Or so some would believe. But the truth was… just a little more obscure. If you were to go up to her and ask what her life was like when she was younger (she's now 16, by the way), you just might receive the coldest, damned stare you could ever possibly receive from a normal person. But was she normal, you are probably asking? Yes. To a certain degree.**

**Yuri had always been the sort of child who would cringe and hide whenever strangers came over to her house; she couldn't help it… that's just the way she was. The only time she would not be so frightened is when her very best friend, Mari, came over to hang out… only then did Yuri come out of her shell and actually get involved. This was all after that incident… if I were to ask her right now if I could relate that dreaded day to you all, she probably would not let me… and I would suffer that horrible, cold stare in return. But, let's make this a secret between you and me, all right? I'll tell ya, just be sure never to tell her!**

**Oh… one more thing before I reveal all I would reveal to you… Yuri is a strange child… that much is true. But if I reveal all I would reveal to you, and not leave anything out, I would have you know that it would be the ultimate in truth… the truth may frighten the bejeesus out of you, but that's why you are reading this fic, isn't it? To be frightened, at least a little, while you search the mind of this author on what he believes is a good _Inuyasha _story. And don't worry; we will return to our friend, the hanyou, after a short time. For now, Yuri's story must be told, lest it rot in the corners of my mind forever, picking up "dust" in my head, brain matter collecting around it… cells wondering what the hell is going on, why that piece of information is not being used to some good for the system. **

**But enough of that (told you I rant and rave, didn't I?). Let Yuri's story be told. Let the name of dread come forth, and enter your mind… **

**--**

"**Mother, where is my textbook? I need it for school!"**

**The shout rang through the small house, yielding no return call to her.**

**She tried again.**

"**Mother! Where's my science textbook?"**

**Yuri's call again rang unimpeded through the house, with no response.**

"**Well, damn you, then! I'll find it on my own!"**

**With that, she stormed out of the kitchen, where she had been scrubbing dishes moments before. No matter how many times she tried to wash the dishes they had in that tiny house, she could never seem to get all the crumbs off them; it was as if they were all held there magnetically, by the most powerful attraction known to man (and man did not know too much about magnets, anyway, or so Yuri knew). All things considered, she just could not do dishes even if her life depended on it; that was the simple fact of the matter.**

**Yuri traveled through her little home with great care. It was like there were pieces of furniture scattered all around the place that would shatter at the slightest touch; there were not, though, just beat-up living room accessories that would probably be better off being placed in some junk yard miles away, where eyes would never want to look upon them again, lest they burn out, or something (in other words, Yuri had really shitty furniture). You can't say she was poor, because _poor _was not the word for it, even though _poor _may be the first word that pops into your mind when you see her place: all shambles, busted windows and the like. **

**Yuri was by no means homeless; she had a mother, but she was gone so often doing things for her job, and so long that it was hard to tell she even had a mother. She had a father, at one time, but he died in some war that Yuri had no idea what war it was. Her mother had told her, once long ago, but that really seemed long ago, now (although in reality it was only five months ago).**

**Where other family was concerned, she had a brother, but he had died years ago, according to her mother, when he had been 15. She wouldn't say how, but Yuri felt as if a great hole had been opened up inside of her, at the pain of his loss. In fact, she had been barely two years old at the time of his death, and she was now 15, so that was even harder to deal with, knowing she would outlive her brother what he had lived during his time.**

**So, life here in Tokyo, at least for her, was a little tough. After looking at her, her life and her home, you can probably relate to her problems, can't you? If you can't, then you're pretty heartless (just kidding; I would never insult any of you!).**

**--**

"**Mother, I'm leaving now!" Yuri shouted, her voice traveling down the stairs and through the rest of the house. She was in her room; it had been about half an hour since she had come up from doing the dishes, and she was god-awful bored. She had books she could read, but they had been read so many times that she knew she could probably recite them all from memory without even picking one up.**

"**OK, you old bitch… go on and ignore me like that. See what I care!" She finished by hurling a small china bowl from her dresser at the wall, where it shattered like a bomb, pieces flying everywhere, a couple grazing her cheek as they went by; Yuri cried out and collapsed on her bed, weeping, face buried into her soft, plush feather pillow she had received for her tenth birthday; it was still in good shape, too.**

**It had been like this ever since her mother had gotten a job working to help the homeless (say Yuri was homeless again, would you?), and her daughter could not seem to grasp the situation, even though it had been over a year ago that it had begun. Although she earned enough to move them along, keep a roof over their heads and food in their mouths, Yuri could not seem to stand the idea that they were the only people this worst off, even though they made some money, at least. **

**Growing up, she had always believed that the poor ones, the ones with small, crappy houses and homely families, were the worse off… but after what happened today, and all the days since her mother got this job, she could not help but feel they were now in that category. This made her cry even harder.**

**Little did Ibeka Yurianna, Yuri for short, know in the days ahead, her life would change so much that tears would pretty much lose all meaning to her.**

**--**

"**Mother? Where are you?" The sound was muffled in her pillow.**

**Once again, Yuri was met with only the silence of her room.**

**She knew her mother would arrive soon… she just did not know when. If anyone tried to guess her mother's schedule at work, they might just as well be guessing when the end of the world was going to hit… well, for that… they might not be too far from the truth. At any rate, it was hard to determine when she would be able to see her _beloved _mother again.**

**However, her prayers would be answered in a mere few hours… but it would not be her mother come to call at the door…**

**--**

**Yuri was hungry.**

"**Mother, come home and make me dinner!" the girl raged, flying up from her bed, hair disheveled, face beet-red and soaked from crying, and flew down the stairs to the kitchen, where she tore open the cupboards, frantically searching for something to scrounge on. Her search yielded nothing… just like her calls to her mother had. They were all futile… useless… IGNORED!**

"**Damn you, woman!" Yuri screamed, bounding around the kitchen in hardly contained rage, knocking vases and other decorations from the table, hearing them shatter, pleased with the sound they made.**

**Before she knew it, she was slumped on the ground, fallen to her knees, and crying openly again. Her house was a shambles, her LIFE was a shambles. She just wanted to do something about it… she just wanted to… die. That thought ran, conscious, through her head, swerving around anything that tried to stop it from becoming unstable, and causing the girl to truly do something she honestly did not want to do… these emotions were coming out of her rage for her house, jealousy for other people who were better off, and open hatred toward her mother.**

"**I just want to DIE!" she shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth for resonance; she might have been standing at a podium in front of thousands of people.**

"**Do you really wish that, Yuri? If so, I can give you something much better."**

**Yuri stopped screaming, as suddenly as if someone had flicked off a light switch; a deep, unearthly silence fell in the tiny kitchen. Very slowly, she turned around.**

**No one was there.**

**The silence spiraled away the seconds until it felt like she had been in that kitchen for two hours… when it had really been barely two minutes.**

"**Who's there?" Yuri called, voice shaking and anxious.**

**There was no response, just the rapid beating of her pounding heart.**

"**Who is it? Show yourself!" the girl demanded, instinctively ripping open a drawer and withdrawing a long, sharp butcher knife… just in case.**

**_Just in case, _Yuri thought, blade shaking in her unstable hand.**

**Suddenly, the kitchen turned extremely hot… it was almost as if it were 150 degrees outside and all the windows had been shut… fans running to circulate air around the place… now it was like all those windows had been thrown open, and stiflingly hot air came rushing in. Sweat immediately started pouring down her face. **

**Yuri grabbed insanely at a paper towel and daubed at her face, breathing heavily… but the suffocating air would not dissipate.**

**_What's going on? _she thought, beginning to panic.**

**All at once, soft laughter echoed through the kitchen… laughter that was at once kind and sinister to listen to.**

**It rang out for a few seconds, and then it was gone. The voice from before spoke again, sounding as if it was right behind her.**

"**Hello, Yuri… you seem to be a little troubled in your mind… is there anything I can do for you?"**

**Yuri squinted into where she heard the voice coming from… the small closet at the back corner, the interior of which was shrouded in darkness… but the girl could faintly make out a shape, standing, just out of sight, just out of the line of her vision. Because of the blackness, she could not make out who or what it was, but…**

"**Who are you?" Yuri asked, trying with all her might to steady the hand that held the butcher knife, fearing that any second her arm would twitch and she would do something irreversible.**

**The black shape standing in the depths of the tiny closet did not respond… yet.**

"**Tell me who you are or I will strike!" the girl demanded, brandishing the knife in what she hoped was a threatening way; the figure gave no sign in any way that it was afraid.**

**Pervasive silence fell in the room again.**

**Then…**

"**Bastard!" Yuri yelled, taking a few uneasy steps toward the closet; she could have sworn the figure within shifted just a little; maybe it was frightened of her now? It should be.**

**_It should be, _she thought, as if to steady her reasoning… and sanity.**

"**Yuri," the voice came again, finally, from inside the closet, "I mean you no harm… if you do what I say, that is." The voice was low, and pleasantly charming… he or she could have passed for anyone walking in the street that sincerely meant no wrong… but was it a man or woman? Yuri could not tell.**

"**Tell me who you are," Yuri repeated, this time keeping the knife clenched tight in her hand at her side, being careful not to accidentally cut into her flesh, despite her overwhelming fear.**

**The figure was silent for just a moment… then it spoke again, in a voice just as quiet and kind as before.**

"**Before I give you my name, Yuri, I need you to give me your promise… will you do so?"**

**Yuri was perplexed. What was going on here? What did this man (or woman), who had mysteriously showed up in her own house, want with her?**

**Even though she was still scared shitless and so confused she could not, immediately, even distinguish from right to left, she nodded. **

"**You have it."**

**She spoke the words almost without thinking… as if some higher power were egging her into doing something she would later regret.**

**Even though it was dark in the closet, and the figure's features hidden, Yuri could have guessed that there was a wide, pleased smile on their face.**

"**Very well, Yuri… I can tell that you are not the person who lies, or goes back on their word… I will now introduce myself."**

**He fell silent again, as if waiting for Yuri to suddenly jump out and guess what his name was. She didn't, however. He continued, and when he gave her his name, she at once felt a cold stab of fear and dread pierce her heart… she knew that name! She just couldn't remember where it was she had heard it last.**

"**My name is Naraku."**

**--**

**Confused, yet? Probably. There is much more to reveal on Yuri's life, and most importantly, that day… the day that, if I were to tell you about it, I would meet the hot fires of Hell at her hands. It's that bad, if you did not already know. And whenever Naraku is involved with something, it's BAD. Even if you do not know _Inuyasha, _you can probably guess that name means anything but good. It, in fact, does mean, in Japanese, "hell."**

**It probably surprises you to realize that, as powerful as he may be, Takahashi-san has always let Inuyasha and his group get the better of Naraku… for the most part. Even though Naraku is considerably more powerful by far than any of them (except perhaps Inuyasha's brother, Sesshoumaru…), he has always been drawn back or defeated in some way… it must be the mark of a good story… to let the villain be encountered again and again, yet not really destroying them, merely getting the better of them and causing them to run away, only to reappear later on.**

**But I'm sure all of you are wondering what is happening to Inuyasha, right now, in the present? I would tell you now, but now that I've begun Yuri's tale, it must be told to its entirety… I am exceptionally sorry, but this is the way it must be done. But don't worry… we'll leave Inuyasha and Yuri right where they are, in the present storyline, while we search the past, and see what happened to make that girl, Yuri, the "name of dread," change so suddenly and so much…**

**--**

"**Naraku… eh?" Yuri wondered aloud, realizing that the name did not exactly stir some memory after all… maybe it was anxiety of the current situation?**

**Without another word, the shadows in the closet shifted, and the figure stepped out into the dim light of the kitchen. Yuri stared.**

**She had expected a human, specifically a man, and she now knew it to be a man, not only by the name, but also now by the change of voice and body build that was now revealed.**

**He was tall, and swathed in a long, silver-white cloak, similar to the skin of an animal, and as Yuri's eyes traveled up the frame, she noticed that, instead of a head, there was what completed the strange figure… the mask of a baboon. It was cut so that it did not cover the entire face, just the eyes, ears and top of the head… only the mouth was showing now… leering in an unpleasant grin. There were eye holes in the mask, actually, though, where they would have been on a human face. The figure did not appear to have any hair, and if it did, then it was cleverly tied back and concealed underneath the mask, because Yuri could not see any.**

**Suddenly, she burst out laughing.**

**Naraku stood there, unmoving, gauging her reaction, as if wondering why she was laughing like she was. The suddenness of the situation, the total unexpectedness of it… she could not help it. In one fell swoop, all of her fear, anger and sorrow she felt earlier faded away, and she was left in a cacophony of amusement.**

"**I am pleased that you are not as frightened as you were before," Naraku said, startling Yuri so that she suddenly stopped laughing, the remnants of it dying into silence in the kitchen, "and I am also happy to note that you will probably never have to feel afraid again."**

**This pronouncement was followed by another long, deep silence, uncomfortable, even in Yuri's right. She had to break it… and she did. She took a breath.**

"**Now that we know each other," Naraku continued, "I expect you are wondering what it is I am doing here, are you not?"**

**He took her silence for a yes.**

"**Very well… basically, I need your help, Yurianna. A certain group of foes pursue me, now, and have been for quite some time. Each time I elude them, they always come back to find me. Last time, I just barely got away. They are a cruel bunch, smart and very powerful. The one who leads them is the most cunning of all, one who wields a magical sword that can do a variety of things, not only cutting its enemies, but also launching demonic power back at things, letting loose a barrage of diamond shards and even growing dragon scales that can absorb demon power. Does this foe not strike your attention, Yuri?"**

**The abrupt end of his explanation left the girl stunned. Such a wealth of information given in a short time; it was slightly overwhelming to her. Nevertheless, she pressed on, not knowing as she did it if it was the right thing to even do.**

"**What help would you ask of me?" she asked, trying to sound as polite as she could, which was mildly difficult; for her, politeness was quite hard to come by… just ask her mother.**

**Naraku was silent for a moment, before he spoke again.**

"**It's simple, really, Yuri. These foes are my match and more, and there are two other specific foes other than the group I mentioned before… ones that, if not stopped, could prove my ultimate undoing."**

**In his head, Naraku was thinking, _And it's because of one of these foes that I am standing here right now. If it weren't for one of those foes in particular, I would not even be alive…_ He grinned, causing the girl to shudder suddenly.**

**_Maybe I overdid it, but… so be it._ He sighed, as if in resignation.**

"**It's simple, really, Yuri," he repeated, "I want your help to eliminate these foes. I want them dead."**

**Yuri did not immediately reply.**

**Naraku laughed softly, before speaking.**

"**Yuri, Yuri, Yuri," he said silkily, "your silence tells me that you are instantly regretting your promise to me… I'll have you know that you cannot do anything in the line of betraying, double-crossing, stabbing in the back… none of that. I'll have you know that if you do any of those things… your wish to be rid of this earth will come true." He ended it so bluntly that it sounded much more than a threat, and Yuri was frightened. People had always said this girl was nice and brave, but she did not feel brave at all at this moment; on the contrary, she hoped suddenly that the ground would open up and swallow her, put her away from this person that mysteriously knew so much about her, and struck a deal with her that she was not immediately willing to accept, lest it cost her life should she refuse or try to betray him.**

**So what could she do? She evidently did not have much of a choice.**

**She steeled herself.**

**Then nodded.**

"**Okay, Naraku, or whatever your name is," she started, flinching when she saw him move toward her slightly when she threw in that smart-aleck part. She bypassed it as quickly and surely as she possibly could.**

"**Sorry about that little comment (he stopped advancing toward her now)," Yuri said quickly, hoping to cover her slight mistake, "I will help you find who you are looking for."**

**There was silence as he stood not five feet away from her; after about two minutes, his lack of any sort of response began to bug her.**

"**I'll help you, I said!" the girl said defiantly, noting how he was just standing there, still and cool as a statue, regarding her with his hidden eyes, which she could have sworn glittered a little bit like red in the darkness of the holes of the mask he wore.**

**The silence extended for about a minute more, and then…**

"**Very good, Yuri, I knew you would agree."**

**Yuri waited.**

**In vain.**

"**Hello?" she tried after a few minutes. "Naraku? Earth to Naraku?!"**

**If she came off sounding smart again, she did not care. The figure remained stoic and silent.**

"**Yo!" Yuri called, cupping her hands about her mouth, but that yielded no response, either. She sighed, traces of anger edging their way to the surface… she did not enjoy being ignored.**

"**If all you are going to do is just stand there, ignore me, and not do anything at all, for that matter, then I'm going to end our bargain right here. It's no wonder your foes always get the better of you! When one comes up to attack you, you probably just stand there, confident they'll miss or something! Is that it?"**

**What happened next was too fast to see, at least by human eyes. One minute, the girl was shouting at the silent man, wrapped as he was in the baboon pelt; the next, she felt extreme pressure bearing down on her throat, and realized that he was now standing in front of her, eyes flaring red behind the mask, hand flown up out of the costume, pushing down on her neck; she let out one quick scream before he had her voice box almost completely obscured.**

**She gasped for air, sputtering, trying vainly to break free, but his grip was like iron.**

"**Do you think I'm worthless, now, Yuri?" he asked, voice soft and compelling; as of yet, he had not sounded at all angry or upset by anything she said or did, even though many other people might have at some point. His grip tightened.**

**Yuri felt herself beginning to slip into blackness; she fought the wave of dizziness that passed through her body… she was about to faint, and she could not do anything about it.**

**_Damn it! _she thought, wildly trying to strike out and hit the man in front of her, but every time she attempted to lash out at him, he would easily block her stroke.**

"**Will you listen to me, heed my words, and not go back on them? You gave me your promise earlier, but you broke it just now by lashing out at me like you did… I do not tolerate this behavior, girl… remember that."**

**Yuri tried as best she could to nod her head, or give any indication that she agreed to his **

**(_threat)_**

**request. He seemed to believe it, for he slowly loosened his grip, eventually letting her tumble to the kitchen floor, gasping and coughing, grabbing at her throat and rubbing it, where it hurt like it had just been burned.**

"**I sense it in the way you reacted, Yuri… your answer… your undying devotion to me, now… I know all about you."**

**That last sentence left the girl on the floor, writhing and twisting in agony, hanging dumbstruck.**

"**What do you mean, you know all about me? I have never even met you, before!" This was, of course, true, at least to her prospects… she had never seen this man, before, and even if she had, she couldn't tell, because of the way he was currently dressed.**

**Naraku laughed softly.**

"**Yes, you are confused, and I know it. But this whole escapade has been nothing short of confusing for me, also. I'll admit it. Even I did not know of this little detail until a month or so ago. Only you can help me do this."**

**This did not help to alleviate her perplexity. **

"**I do not understand anything you're telling me… you're talking in circles, and I don't like it." Her voice, which had been hoarse a few seconds ago, now returned to full strength. She listened.**

"**I know about your past, Yuri. You may not believe this, but I am not even from your world. I know someone in particular who is, but she is not important to this conversation… although sometime in the future you may get a chance to meet her. I know about your mother, how she is always away, and hardly ever gets to see you because of her job. I know about your father, who died mysteriously, and you do not even know why or how. I know about your brother, whom you thought to be dead… he is not."**

**Startled, caught off guard, she waited for him to continue.**

**When he did not right away, she asked, "What do you mean? It's been proven that he is dead!" She stopped there, because Naraku was shaking his head.**

"**You were led to believe this was so, but I assure you, it is not true. I can tell, from your words and your looks, that you were too young to even remember who he was, let alone his name if one were to give it to you." He paused.**

"**Your brother's name is Inuyasha."**

**--**

**TBC**

**OMG!! Bear with me, folks! I know you're all confused, but I'm trying my best, here! Hopefully, those of you who are confused (and I know there are many) with this whole freakin' story will be alleviated (and that means "relieved") of all of your questions; in other words, the whole plot will be explained. I think…**

**Anyway, keep the reviews comin'! **

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